Executive Secretary/CEO of Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Ogbonnaya Orji, has said Nigeria lost over N16.25 trillion due to oil theft in the country.
Orji, in a report to the Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts (PAC), Bamidele Salam, during an interactive session in Abuja, also claimed that $74.386 billion was spent on fuel subsidy by successive administrations since 2011.
According to him, the Agency has compiled the actual amount paid as subsidy on a yearly basis. Orji claimed that the compilation was based on data collated and signed-off by operators in the industry and other stakeholders.
He further said NEITI also uncovered over $8.3 billion unremitted revenue by some privately-owned oil firms and Federal Government-owned Agencies which was not paid into the Federation Account, in deviance to provisions in the extant financial regulations.
He, however, noted that the Agency is working with various enforcement Institutions including Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and related offences Commission (ICPC) as well as Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit, (NFIU), in the bid to recover the find into governments coffers.
He also informed the gathering that, $16.25 billion was lost to oil theft in Nigeria, stating that the data was arrived at from data collected from various sign offs by operators and government agencies.While rolling out the last report NEITI released on the 25th of September, 2023, he announced that the PAC is now a natural ally of his agency and he will give it all the maximum cooperation needed.
Orji disclosed that the Agency will release the report on the fiscal allocation and statutory disbursement on the 9th November, 2023 and the beneficiaries from the fund.
According to him, The revenue that were made, who got what and how, were the sharing formula followed, what of the 13% derivation fund, what of those statutory receivers like TETFund, PTDF, like INEC and all those that received Extractive sector directly from the revenue account.
Where do they trace the money for the account, where did it go to? Sometimes we take all of these for granted but its not always like that. If you go through this report and follow up, youll be shocked that its not just sharing and allocation. Getting to the people, the Government and the right sources has also been a huge challenge; and that is what were been battling with, the NEITI helmsman told the Committee.
