Oil & Gas
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As a result of exposures in the audit reports of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency, more funds are accruing into the federation account
| By Anayo Ezugwu | Jul. 7, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT
A TOTAL of N30.09 trillion extractive revenue funds were remitted to the federation account between 2007 and 2011. According to the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, the federal government also recovered over N64.4 billion from oil companies operating in the country in the past six months.
The agency said the recovery was based on findings in its 2009-2011 audit report, which revealed that some oil companies did not make the required payments, while others made under-payments to the federation account. NEITI stated that despite the fact that gold and barite were being mined in the country, there were no records of any royalty or similar payments for the commodities.
It further revealed that the federal government earned N26.9 billion from the solid minerals sector in 2011. NEITI’s findings were revealed in Abuja on Wednesday, June 25, at a public presentation of two independent audit reports. The reports were the 2007-2011 Fiscal Allocation and Statutory Disbursement Audit and the 2011 Solid Minerals Audit.
Ledum Mitee, chairman, NEITI, said the agency’s audits in the past had given rise to the recoveries of over $2 billion, thus dispelling arguments that the organisation’s audit reports were a waste of resources. “I am pleased to announce that since the reconstitution of the Inter-Ministerial Task Team last December by the Federal Government, NEITI, working with the relevant agencies through the IMTT, the Nigerian machinery for NEITI implementation, has made recoveries from the 2009-2011 audit report alone, of a total of N64,401,841,370.40 from some companies. The companies, notably, are AMNI, Chevron, Mid-Western, Mobil, Agip and Total, and another $5.8 million is expected to be paid this week by Express Petroleum and Gas Company,” he said.
On the Fiscal Allocation and Statutory Disbursement audit, Mitee said the report has revealed that there were two major revenue streams that flowed into the federation account through the office of the accountant-general of the federation. He said the streams were mineral and non-mineral revenue remittances. “From these two components, the audit disclosed that the total extractive revenue fund remitted into the Federation Account within 2007-2011 was N30.09 trillion. Out of this amount, mineral revenue remittances accounted for N23.7 trillion (less JV cash calls and NNPC subsidy claims), while non-mineral revenues stood at N4.014 trillion.”
According to Mitee, the country earned N2.3 trillion from Value Added Tax during the same period and total transfers to excess crude account stood at N8.53 trillion, with the highest transfer of N3.15 trillion recorded in 2011. The report indicated that transfers to the excess crude account dropped below N1 trillion in 2009, with only N339.54 billion in the whole year, noting that the sum of N31.15 billion was reported by the federation account allocation committee as under-remittances by the NNPC in December 2012.
The Fiscal Allocation and Statutory Disbursement audit also revealed that the total oil and gas revenue disbursed to the three tiers of government and the beneficiaries of the 13 percent derivation fund from 2007 to 2011 was N22.35 trillion. According to the report, the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, received a total revenue of N593.96 billion between 2007 and 2011.
It said that out of the N680.53 billion due to the commission from the federal government, only N216.9 billion was paid, leaving a deficit of N463.62 billion. Mitee said the federal government granted $45 million (N6.04 billion) as loans to Ghana and Sao Tome and Principe in 2004 from Nigeria’s stabilisation fund, and stressed that the benefiting countries had yet to pay the sum of N827.58 million outstanding on the loans as at the end of December 2011.
Rivers State was the highest beneficiary of oil-specific revenues, receiving N1.08 trillion during the period. Akwa Ibom came next with N965.88 billion, while Nasarawa got the lowest with N90.78 billion from the minerals revenue. The audit examined nine states as pilot. Mitee said NEITI embarked on the Fiscal Allocation and Statutory Disbursement audit in order to track the disbursements and applications of extractive revenues from the federation account to the three tiers of government.
He said other government agencies that directly received allocations from the federation account were also covered by the audit exercise. The agencies include the NDDC, Central Bank of Nigeria, Petroleum Technology Development Fund, and Administration and Application of Excess Crude Oil Account.
The agency observed that there was a poor synergy between the various government agencies such as the ministry of mines and steel development, the CBN, Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Export Promotions Council and Mining Cadastral Office on tracking records and revenue on exported solid minerals.
While making a presentation on the 2011 solid minerals industry audit report, Zainab Ahmed, executive secretary, NEITI, explained that the audit was done in order to provide a reliable information and data on financial flows from the government through its agencies to the federation account and examine the physical process issues that characterise business activities in the industry.
This, Ahmed said, was with a view to establishing if companies actually paid what they were expected to pay and if the government indeed received what it ought to receive, as the audit would be useful for purposes of planning and economic development in Nigeria. “From the report, I am pleased to announce that the Federal Government earned a total sum of N26.9 billion from solid minerals in 2011. Out of this amount, a total sum of N26.8 billion represents funds paid by companies,” she said.
NEITI recommended that there was an urgent need to check the incessant smuggling of solid mineral products out of the country and called for a thorough regulation of the activities of foreign nationals operating in the solid minerals sector.
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