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Hold NNPC, others accountable for $49.8bn scandal – EITI

By on December 18, 2013

Government agencies in the oil and gas sector that fail to live up to their mandates should be held accountable by Nigerians for the consequences of their failure, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has said.

EITI is a global coalition of governments, companies and civil society groups working together to improve openness and accountable management of revenues from natural resources.

Speaking on the sidelines of a civil society forum, the representative of EITI and board member of the coalition,  Ms. Faith Nwadishi, said the audit reports of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative had often times revealed the shortcomings of oil firms in the sector, “especially the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.”

She said the recent revelation by the Central Bank of Nigeria that the corporation failed to remit $49.8bn to the Federation Account should, therefore, provoke the demand for public probe of the accounts and records of the NNPC, stressing that over $400bn was generated from the oil and gas sector in the country between 1999 and 2011.

“But will you say this fund was adequately used? People should ask questions,” Nwadishi said.

Nwadishi, who doubles as the Chairperson, National Stakeholders’ Working Group Civil Society Committee, said the campaign against corruption in the system had been made successful by the provision of data, but noted that the usage of the data was vital to stemming fraud.

She added, “For instance, the letter by the CBN and the 2012 protests on oil subsidy were captured by the NEITI report for Nigeria. And because of the fact that citizens, especially civil societies, are not using this information, or getting it out to the public in order to hold people accountable, we may not get the desired outcome.

“You say you have data but it is just there and people are not using it. So, it is important that citizens, maybe facilitated by the civil societies, get hold of this information, analyse it and put it in the public space in such a way that the citizens can understand it and use it to hold these agencies accountable.

“Again, one other thing that comes out of the audit of NEITI is that there are recommendations for remediation. But these things are never done. Now, everybody is talking about the letter of the CBN governor, but you will be surprised that after a while, everything will die down.”

 

 

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