NEITI working with EFCC to recover $6bn, N66bn from oil companies, says Ogbonnaya Orji

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) says it is working with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to recover $6 billion and N66 billion owed the federal government by oil and gas companies.

Ogbonnaya Orji, NEITI executive secretary, spoke on Monday when he appeared before the house of representatives committee on petroleum resources (upstream) to defend the organisation’s 2025 budget.

In a report published in September 2024, NEITI said the outstanding revenues due to the federal government in the oil and gas industry rose to $6.071 billion and N66.4 billion respectively, as of June 2024.

According to the report, the outstanding liabilities are unpaid royalties and gas flare penalties due to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), as of August 31.

Also, outstanding petroleum profit taxes, company income taxes, withholding taxes, and value-added tax (VAT) amounting to $21.9 million and N492.8 million were due to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as of June 2024.

Addressing lawmakers, Orji said NEITI is partnering with the anti-graft agency to recover the funds.

“NEITI is working with the EFCC to recover $6 billion and another N66 billion owed to the federal government of Nigeria disclosed courageously by NEITI in our last report published in September 2024 and 30th of October last year. That process is on,” he said.

Speaking on NEITI’s 2025 budget, Orji said the sum of N6.5 billion has been earmarked for the financial year.

Providing a breakdown, he said N2.220 billion would go to personnel issues, N1.722 billion for overhead and N2.575 billion for capital projects.

He said NEITI will release a report on the nation’s oil exploration and mining sectors in 2025.

‘N32m BUDGETED FOR MEALS IN 2025’

Members of the committee criticised the executive secretary for including “unnecessary items” in the budget despite the economic situation in the country.

Kafilat Ogbara, an All Progressives Congress (APC) member from Lagos, said NEITI budgeted N32 million for meals in 2025.

“There is no way you can spend that amount of money for meals in a year,” she said.

“Most of our MDAs should ensure that what they are bringing as budget proposal must actually tally with the line item and the purpose why you want to use such funds.

“Let us not just see budget defence as ‘the money is there and we should share it… so, let us see how to get our own share’.”

Ademorin Kuye from Lagos said agencies should not think that the national assembly would approve all proposals in their budgets.

“We are all aware of the situation in the country and we must be circumspect and be prudent in our expenditure because the general feeling out there is that the national assembly is just a rubber stamp and whatever they bring is what we approve. And that is not so,” he said.

Alhassan Doguwa, chairman of the committee, said “agencies of government must be mindful of what they spend out of public resources”.

“All these proposals are going to be spent at the expense of the Nigerian people. Sometimes, we come to make presentations here that sound funny and very insulting in the eyes of the people,” he said.

Doguwa however said the committee will support NEITI to execute its mandate.