Jonas Ezieke, Abuja
The Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative NEITI has said that the agency’s annual audit of the oil and gas industries in Nigeria is what gave birth to the Petroleum Industry Act PIA 2007 the frontline oil and gas legislation passed by the National Assembly.
Executive Secretary of NEITI Dr.. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji gave the hint on Monday at the National Assembly when he alongside other officials of the agency appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Upstrenstream for 2024 Budget Review and 2025 Budget Defense
He said that NEITI is a global organization that is working towards entrenching the culture of transparency and accountability in the nation’s oil and gas sector.
He informed the House Committee that the agency in connection with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC is working very hard to recover $6 billion stolen in the sector and another N68 billion owed the federal government of Nigeria by some big players in the oil industry.
He further told the House Committee that the agency is involved in traing and retraining of oil and gas sector players adding that a lot of these trainings will enhance the staff of these industry players.
He added that the federal government had approved funds for local.and foreign training of its personnel, board members as as well as other oil and gas sector operators.
Presenting the 2025 Budget, he said that the agency budgeted N6.5 billion for the fiscal year made up of NN1.7 billion for Overhead, N2.2 billion for Capital a d N2.2 billion for Personnel cost.
He listed some of the line items of the estimate to include upgrade of new office N165 million, computer acquisition N95 million, purchase of printers N96 million, publicity and advertisment N115 million among other items.
At the budget session,Hon.Kafurat Ogbara (Lagos,APC) and some other members had pointed out the huge figures and repetition in some of the line items of the agency’s budget from the 2024 to the 2025 budgets.
Chairman of the House Committee Hon.Alhassan Ado Doguwa later constituted some committee members into a sub-committee led by Hon.Ademorun Kuye (Lagos,APC) to scrutnize the agency’s budget
