NEITI to partner anti-graft agencies in recovery drive
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
All the 77 oil firms owing the treasury N2.6 trillion in tax arrears are to be named in an oil and gas audit report the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) says it will now release in December instead of this month.
“The ongoing NEITI 2020 oil/gas independent industry audit to be released early next month will confirm the current status. I am in no position to speculate at this moment,” NEITI Executive Secretary Ogbonnaya Orji told The Nation.
He had announced in Abuja in September that “the 2020 audit report will validate if these payments have been made by the companies. Our audit reports are published annually. Plans are on to release the 2020 report by November this year.”
He urged the government to prevail on the 77 firms to remit their outstanding dues of Value Added Tax, Withholding Income Tax, Education Tax, and the other taxes to the treasury, money he insisted is enough for debt servicing in the 2021 budget.
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Buhari orders anti-graft agencies to recover tax arrears
Days after Orji spoke out, President Muhammadu Buhari instructed all the anti-graft agencies to recover the sums from the defaulting oil firms.
The agencies include the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Independence Corrupt Practices and Other Crimes Commission (ICPC), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
NFIU Chief Executive Officer Modibbo Tukur broke news of Buhari’s directive when he visited NEITI secretariat to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), telling journalists it is not acceptable that Nigeria is owed such a huge amount while it is borrowing funds for projects.
Tukur disclosed that Buhari has directed Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed to oversee the recovery, including setting up a panel of anti-corruption agencies.
His words: “NEITI’s hard work has led to some kind of fruition because I briefed him (President Muhammadu Buhari) this morning and you may not be aware of it.
“This week, Mr. President has approved officially all the recoveries to be done in this area. The Minister of Finance [Ahmed] has been directed to set up a recovery panel with the EFCC, NEITI and NFIU and even NAPIMS and all the others.
“So, we are heading to maximum transparency. And there will be consolidation of data coming from NEITI, from NFIU and other agencies and there will be very clear reconciliation with the players and those regulating the sector.
“So, no more hiding of our national revenue. We all know what we are going through. Nobody wants to see the government borrow.”
Importance of inter-agency collaboration
Modibbo said he did some work with NEITI in the past and its new management is raising the standards in the execution of NEITI principles traversing the entire country and getting results.
“So, we have the public accounts analysis and reporting. They analyse every single government account from local government to federal. So, if the oil companies that they are paying, we will be the one to tell them whether they have paid and that’s what we’re doing.
“And we have the oil, maritime and petroleum sector analysis, we also have the natural environment analysis.
“So, this is also a natural environment issue where people hide and they do illegal mining, they exploit, then they do certain things and they move it out of the country without even the ministry of mining knowing, and sometimes they go as far as using this sector to finance terrorism.
“We ran into so many cases, in this particular area when we’re were doing our analysis on terrorism. So, I think today is the day to congratulate you because we are taking off and you will see the results. Now we have all seen the zeal.
“Because you are talking about N2.6 trillion, then we reported over $5 billion, not paid in the area where the players are, which is the Niger Delta. And then, over N700 billion was not paid, and in some cases, companies receiving as agents and not even remitting.
“I think to achieve greater transparency in this area, it is good this time around to work with artificial intelligence, because if you are waiting for somebody to collect money and give you your own share, maybe it’s the day you are standing in front of God that he will pay you.”
Modibbo disclosed that both teams will soon approach the Finance Ministry “where we are going to sit down, call these companies and talk the real issues, so that the results will come in. And from that data you have and the one we have, the alert will start coming in very soon.
He said he has stressed “the underlining importance of NFIU and NEITI collaboration in areas of managing information and data at our disposal in the oil, gas and mining sectors because of the strategic importance of the sector to our economy and the extensive work that I am aware the NFIU is doing in that sector.
“It’s been a long journey; but I am glad that the documents that will underpin our relationship are now ready for signing.
“This is a very fundamental aspect of our relationship with NFIU. We are very comfortable, very happy and appreciative of the job that agencies like yours are doing in that sector.
“We can’t all sit down and watch as a few people want to fritter [away] the resources that are available.
“This country is in haste to develop and needs resources to provide roads, water, electricity, build infrastructure for our people and our teeming youths and make life abundant and to reduce the exodus of our youths to other jurisdictions where things are even tougher.”