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NEITI wants increased penalties for errant oil firms

By on September 19, 2015

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative on Thursday called for an amendment to its law so as to allow it to double civil monetary penalties on mining, oil and gas companies that provide false information regarding volumes of production, sales and income.

The agency’s Director of Legal, Peter Ogbobine, who presented an overview of the proposed amendments to the NEITI Act, 2007 at a roundtable event in Abuja, explained that limiting civil sanctions to about N20m was inadequate given the value of transactions involved in the oil and gas industry.

Ogbobine proposed 12 areas of amendment and noted that although NEITI had brought more transparency to the extractive sector, the desired accountability had not been significantly achieved in the industry.

The agency stated that poor funding from the budgetary allocations of the Federal Government had greatly hindered its operation.

It, therefore, sought amendments to the enabling laws that allow it to retain five per cent of the money recovered from oil companies due to findings contained in its audit report of the sector.

NEITI also proposed that five per cent of all monies accruing to the Natural Resources Development Fund should be made available to it.

But reacting to the presentation, a former Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Mr. Ahmed Lawan, who chaired the occasion, said NEITI must seek more realistic sources of funding for its activities.

Lawan noted that although NEITI needed additional funding, seeking for five per cent from the Natural Resources Development Fund might not be achievable.

According to him, in 2012, the NRDF had N870bn in its account but the seventh Senate discovered that over N700bn had been misapplied.

He said, “I am of the opinion that NEITI should have more funds based on what it is doing. Very soon, oil companies will comply; so, funding from collections is not what you can rely on.

“The Natural Resources Development Fund account was N870bn, but over N700bn was misapplied. Five per cent of that fund may be considered as too much for NEITI by some people; and so, a lower percentage proposal may be more comfortable.”

The Executive Secretary of NEITI, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, said the organisation required more powers to impose sanctions on extractive industries operators.

 

[Punch]