NEWS
NIGERIA
By Chuks Okocha, Muhammad Bello, Onyebuchi Ezigbo and Chineme Okafo
The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Sunday accused the Federal Government of deliberate attempt to sabotage the work of the Ribadu committee in view of the controversy that marred the presentation of its report last Friday.
In a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the decision to appoint Steve Oronsaye and Benard Otti to positions in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) while the task force was still working on its assignment, was a deliberate booby-trap.
But in a swift reaction, the Presidency deplored the ACN’s allegation, saying that it falls into a familiar pattern by the party to tell lies and discredit every initiative of the President Goodluck Jonathan.
The ACN said the Federal Government’s action smacked of ulterior motive, since it did not allow the task force to complete its assignment before appointing Oronsaye and Otti as a board member and Director of Finance respectively.
‘’Alternatively, both men should have resigned their membership of the committee the moment they were given the plum jobs to avoid the apparent conflict of interests. The fact that they stayed on, only to disparage the report of the
task force so openly and ferociously at the end, is the clearest indication yet that they were meant to play that exact role of spoilers,’’ ACN added.
‘’Alternatively, both men should have resigned their membership of the committee the moment they were given the plum jobs to avoid the apparent conflict of interests. The fact that they stayed on, only to disparage the report of the
task force so openly and ferociously at the end, is the clearest indication yet that they were meant to play that exact role of spoilers,’’ ACN added.
Reiterating that President Jonathan remains committed to the war against corruption, the Presidency noted that every step his administration had taken has been in this direction, which has not changed.
The statement read: “The statement falls into a familiar pattern by the party and its lying Lai, to seek every opportunity to insult President Jonathan, as they write glibly about what they call ‘the President’s efforts to downplay the whole disagreement and give the dissenters a soft landing,” and the President’s innermost thoughts on this issue.’
“For the avoidance of doubt, and for the benefit of the naysayers, the committees were set up as fact-finding and advisory bodies to generate ideas and recommendations about how best to strengthen the oil and gas sector and to further pursue the objectives of institutional integrity, transparency and accountability.
“President Jonathan remains committed to the war against corruption and every step his administration has taken has been in this direction, and that has not changed.
“The disagreements during the presentation were as surprising as they were sudden. President Jonathan should be commended for his mature handling of the situation, and not made the target of silly insinuations.
The ACN claims that Oronsaye and Otti’s membership of the NNPC while serving on the Ribadu committee compromises their position. It is important to note that this committee and other committees had government officials, and ex-staff as members.
“They were not set up as quasi-judicial bodies but as committees of wise and knowledgeable men and women who would offer useful advice and in getting such useful advice there is nothing wrong in encouraging the participation of a broad category of persons including insiders and outsiders.
“ If Lai Mohammed had done his home work, he would have discovered that there were serving government officials on the Petroleum Industry Bill Task Force, chaired by Senator Udo Udoma, and which submitted its report in June; its technical committee was chaired by Osten Olorunsola of the Directorate of Petroleum Resources (DPR). Similarly, the Refineries Task Force headed by Dr Kalu Idika Kalu had all the Managing Directors of the refineries as members. And in fact, the membership of the Ribadu Committee included representatives of the FIRS, Federal Ministry of Finance, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, DPR, NNPC, and Accountant General of the Federation.
“The ACN should desist from looking for faults where none exists, in the expectation that if they tell the same lies long enough, more gullible persons will be persuaded to trust them.”
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has called for amendments to its establishing Act to enable it enforce findings from its process and physical audit of Nigeria’s extractive sectors.
NEITI while reacting to the outcome of the probe conducted on revenue flows from Nigeria’s oil and gas sector by the Ribadu committee, said the report and those of others that were inaugurated by the Federal Government, necessitated that it should be given the legal backing to enforce its findings.
A member of the task force, Mr. Anthony George Ikoli (SAN), however, faulted Ribadu’s claim that the report submitted to President Jonathan last Friday was the same as the one from which the media derived the story of sleazy and corruption in the oil and gas industry that was published last week.
NEITI also asked for a speedy passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) by the National Assembly to stem rampant corruption in the extractive sectors.
Chairman of the National Stakeholders Working Group (NSWG) of NEITI, Mr. Ledum Mitte, said in a statement yesterday in Abuja that findings of the Ribadu committee were not new to NEITI.
“Rather, what is new is the seeming lack of sufficient efforts to recover missing funds from indicted companies by affected relevant government agencies even when these companies had not shown any resistance to pay,” he added.
“Rather, what is new is the seeming lack of sufficient efforts to recover missing funds from indicted companies by affected relevant government agencies even when these companies had not shown any resistance to pay,” he added.
Mitte explained that NEITI’s industry audits had consistently identified problems within the petroleum sector, proposed solutions and ways to implement them without adherence to these recommendations and remediation issues.
According to him, these lapses have remained a major challenge in spite of efforts by NEITI under the Inter- Ministerial Task Team (IMTT) set up by the Federal Government for these purposes, adding that Ribadu’s probe report has re-opened a compelling and urgent case for necessary follow up through actions on remedial issues already identified and recommended by NEITI’s extant reports.
“NEITI has followed with keen interest media reports on the recent report of the Nuhu Ribadu committee on governance, transparency and accountability in the oil and gas sector as an agency statutorily set up to develop a framework for transparency and accountability in the management of revenues from Nigeria’s extractive industries, especially oil and gas.”
“Over the years, NEITI has conducted three different cycles of industry audits spanning the period 1999-2004, 2005 and 2006-2008 respectively. The report of another round of comprehensive audit of the oil and gas sector for 2009- 2011, which began early in the year, is expected to be concluded by December 2012 and each of the past NEITI audit reports clearly identified financial, physical and process lapses, and revealed a loss of some $2.6 billion due to underpayments, under-assessments, poor judgment in the computations of volume of crude sales and other leakages only,” he said.
Mitte explained that from past audits, NEITI had uncovered $9.8 billion as outstanding recoverable fund due to the Federation Account from the companies.
NEITI, he added, had openly expressed concern that there was no sufficient effort to recover the funds from the companies, when there was nothing stopping government agencies from doing so.
“Whilst NEITI also considers the series of probes now ongoing in the oil and gas sector as most welcome fundamental steps towards actualising the global principles and objectives of Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which Nigeria voluntarily subscribed to as a member since 2003, it feels, however, that had the remedial issues identified by the NEITI audit reports been dealt with or had NEITI the necessary enabling enforcement powers, some of the issues necessitating and identified by these probes would have since been dealt with.
“Vindicated as NEITI, no doubt feels by the reported findings of the Ribadu Committee, it is our belief that one further thing the Ribadu Report has clearly achieved is to expose the need to further strengthen NEITI through necessary amendments to its enabling Act to give it the necessary enforcement powers as well as visible steps to implement the findings and recommendations of audit reports,” Mitte said.The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Sunday accused the Federal Government of deliberate attempt to sabotage the work of the Ribadu committee in view of the controversy that marred the presentation of its report last Friday.
In a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the decision to appoint Steve Oronsaye and Benard Otti to positions in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) while the task force was still working on its assignment, was a deliberate booby-trap.
But in a swift reaction, the Presidency deplored the ACN’s allegation, saying that it falls into a familiar pattern by the party to tell lies and discredit every initiative of the President Goodluck Jonathan.
The ACN said the Federal Government’s action smacked of ulterior motive, since it did not allow the task force to complete its assignment before appointing Oronsaye and Otti as a board member and Director of Finance respectively.
‘’Alternatively, both men should have resigned their membership of the committee the moment they were given the plum jobs to avoid the apparent conflict of interests. The fact that they stayed on, only to disparage the report of the
task force so openly and ferociously at the end, is the clearest indication yet that they were meant to play that exact role of spoilers,’’ ACN added.
‘’Alternatively, both men should have resigned their membership of the committee the moment they were given the plum jobs to avoid the apparent conflict of interests. The fact that they stayed on, only to disparage the report of the
task force so openly and ferociously at the end, is the clearest indication yet that they were meant to play that exact role of spoilers,’’ ACN added.
Reiterating that President Jonathan remains committed to the war against corruption, the Presidency noted that every step his administration had taken has been in this direction, which has not changed.
The statement read: “The statement falls into a familiar pattern by the party and its lying Lai, to seek every opportunity to insult President Jonathan, as they write glibly about what they call ‘the President’s efforts to downplay the whole disagreement and give the dissenters a soft landing,” and the President’s innermost thoughts on this issue.’
“For the avoidance of doubt, and for the benefit of the naysayers, the committees were set up as fact-finding and advisory bodies to generate ideas and recommendations about how best to strengthen the oil and gas sector and to further pursue the objectives of institutional integrity, transparency and accountability.
“President Jonathan remains committed to the war against corruption and every step his administration has taken has been in this direction, and that has not changed.
“The disagreements during the presentation were as surprising as they were sudden. President Jonathan should be commended for his mature handling of the situation, and not made the target of silly insinuations.
The ACN claims that Oronsaye and Otti’s membership of the NNPC while serving on the Ribadu committee compromises their position. It is important to note that this committee and other committees had government officials, and ex-staff as members.
“They were not set up as quasi-judicial bodies but as committees of wise and knowledgeable men and women who would offer useful advice and in getting such useful advice there is nothing wrong in encouraging the participation of a broad category of persons including insiders and outsiders.
“ If Lai Mohammed had done his home work, he would have discovered that there were serving government officials on the Petroleum Industry Bill Task Force, chaired by Senator Udo Udoma, and which submitted its report in June; its technical committee was chaired by Osten Olorunsola of the Directorate of Petroleum Resources (DPR). Similarly, the Refineries Task Force headed by Dr Kalu Idika Kalu had all the Managing Directors of the refineries as members. And in fact, the membership of the Ribadu Committee included representatives of the FIRS, Federal Ministry of Finance, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, DPR, NNPC, and Accountant General of the Federation.
“The ACN should desist from looking for faults where none exists, in the expectation that if they tell the same lies long enough, more gullible persons will be persuaded to trust them.”
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has called for amendments to its establishing Act to enable it enforce findings from its process and physical audit of Nigeria’s extractive sectors.
NEITI while reacting to the outcome of the probe conducted on revenue flows from Nigeria’s oil and gas sector by the Ribadu committee, said the report and those of others that were inaugurated by the Federal Government, necessitated that it should be given the legal backing to enforce its findings.
A member of the task force, Mr. Anthony George Ikoli (SAN), however, faulted Ribadu’s claim that the report submitted to President Jonathan last Friday was the same as the one from which the media derived the story of sleazy and corruption in the oil and gas industry that was published last week.
NEITI also asked for a speedy passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) by the National Assembly to stem rampant corruption in the extractive sectors.
Chairman of the National Stakeholders Working Group (NSWG) of NEITI, Mr. Ledum Mitte, said in a statement yesterday in Abuja that findings of the Ribadu committee were not new to NEITI.
“Rather, what is new is the seeming lack of sufficient efforts to recover missing funds from indicted companies by affected relevant government agencies even when these companies had not shown any resistance to pay,” he added.
“Rather, what is new is the seeming lack of sufficient efforts to recover missing funds from indicted companies by affected relevant government agencies even when these companies had not shown any resistance to pay,” he added.
Mitte explained that NEITI’s industry audits had consistently identified problems within the petroleum sector, proposed solutions and ways to implement them without adherence to these recommendations and remediation issues.
According to him, these lapses have remained a major challenge in spite of efforts by NEITI under the Inter- Ministerial Task Team (IMTT) set up by the Federal Government for these purposes, adding that Ribadu’s probe report has re-opened a compelling and urgent case for necessary follow up through actions on remedial issues already identified and recommended by NEITI’s extant reports.
“NEITI has followed with keen interest media reports on the recent report of the Nuhu Ribadu committee on governance, transparency and accountability in the oil and gas sector as an agency statutorily set up to develop a framework for transparency and accountability in the management of revenues from Nigeria’s extractive industries, especially oil and gas.”
“Over the years, NEITI has conducted three different cycles of industry audits spanning the period 1999-2004, 2005 and 2006-2008 respectively. The report of another round of comprehensive audit of the oil and gas sector for 2009- 2011, which began early in the year, is expected to be concluded by December 2012 and each of the past NEITI audit reports clearly identified financial, physical and process lapses, and revealed a loss of some $2.6 billion due to underpayments, under-assessments, poor judgment in the computations of volume of crude sales and other leakages only,” he said.
Mitte explained that from past audits, NEITI had uncovered $9.8 billion as outstanding recoverable fund due to the Federation Account from the companies.
NEITI, he added, had openly expressed concern that there was no sufficient effort to recover the funds from the companies, when there was nothing stopping government agencies from doing so.
“Whilst NEITI also considers the series of probes now ongoing in the oil and gas sector as most welcome fundamental steps towards actualising the global principles and objectives of Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which Nigeria voluntarily subscribed to as a member since 2003, it feels, however, that had the remedial issues identified by the NEITI audit reports been dealt with or had NEITI the necessary enabling enforcement powers, some of the issues necessitating and identified by these probes would have since been dealt with.
“Vindicated as NEITI, no doubt feels by the reported findings of the Ribadu Committee, it is our belief that one further thing the Ribadu Report has clearly achieved is to expose the need to further strengthen NEITI through necessary amendments to its enabling Act to give it the necessary enforcement powers as well as visible steps to implement the findings and recommendations of audit reports,” Mitte said.
No comments:
Post a Comment