The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has said it is working with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to recover about $6bn and another N66bn from industry players in the oil sector for the Federal Government.
NEITI’s Executive Secretary, Ogbonnaya Orji, disclosed this in Abuja while defending the 2025 budget proposal of the agency before the House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream).
“We are a transparency agency and we are doing a lot to help in recovering some monies for the Federal Government. We are currently working with the EFCC to recover about $6bn and another N66bn for government from industry players in the oil and gas sector,” he said.
Mr Orji said NEITI was set up to enthrone transparency and accountability in the Nigerian oil and gas sector as well as the mining sector.
In what has become a familiar complaint by many agencies, the NEITI boss told the committee that the agency was given a budget envelope of N6.5bn for the 2025 financial year made up of N2.22bn for personnel, N1.72bn for overhead and N2.58bn for capital expenditures.
He listed some critical activities of the agency in the year 2025 including conducting an industry report of the oil gas and mining sector, fiscal allocation and statutory disbursement audit, research studies on the actual volume of petrol consumed in Nigeria, the economic impact of energy transition in Nigeria and a national perception survey EITI implementation in Nigeria.
The Executive Secretary informed the committee of the recovery effort of the agency, noting that in a year, NEITI recovered over N3.7bn outstanding liabilities from companies operating in the oil and gas sector in the country.
Meanwhile, members of the committee queried the agency for repeating items budgeted for in 2024, while also including items not justifiable given the economic realities of the times.
In her contribution, the member representing Kosofe Federal Constituency, Lagos State, Kafilat Ogbara, said agencies of government should ensure that what they bring to the parliament as their budget estimates comply with the line items specified in the budget.
The Lagos lawmaker asked the NEITI why it budgeted N32m for meals in 2025 at a time when Nigerians are going through difficult times, saying, “There is no way you can spend that amount of money for meals in a year.”
On his part, another Lagos lawmaker, Ademorin Kuye, said in preparing annual budget estimates, agencies of government should be mindful of the economic situation in the country adding that the impression of Nigerians is that the National Assembly is a rubber stamp and will approve any proposals brought before it by government agencies.
“We are all aware of the situation in the country and we must be circumspect and be prudent in our expenditure because the general feeling out there is that the National Assembly is just a rubber stamp and whatever they bring is what we approve. But this is not so,” Kuye who represents Shomolu Federal Constituency said.
The Chairman of the Committee, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa also faulted the language used by the agency in the preparation of the budget and the inclusion of the National Assembly as those benefiting from its welfare package.
Doguwa said that since the committee was constituted, it has not visited the agency on oversight, wondering why they will be included in such a welfare package.
“He said while I agree that the budget stops at our desk and you are just presenting a proposal, I would like to say that the economy is bad. The population of people for whom we are here are crying out. Agencies of government must be mindful of what they spend out of public resources.
“All these proposals are going to be spent at the expense of the Nigerian people. Sometimes, we come to make presentations here that sound funny and very insulting in the eyes of the people. This is so when you mention in your projection things like welfare packages in the form of ex-gratia, health insurance, and welfare packages to staff and some critical stakeholders during welfare packages.
He however pledged the readiness of the Committee to support the agency in the actualisation of its mandate.
“We will try as much as possible to support you as long as you can justify the reasons for one expenditure or the other. Then the legislature will have no option than to support you and provide you with the enabling financial environment for you to discharge your duties and mandate,” Ado-Doguwa assured.
