The House of Representatives, on Wednesday, flagged off the investigation into the activities of oil and gas industry operators who allegedly failed to repatriate an estimated 40–45 per cent of Nigeria’s crude oil export proceeds, amounting to approximately $850 billion between 1996 and 2014.
Speaking in Abuja during the inaugural meeting of the ad-hoc Committee mandated to investigate Pre-Shipment Inspection of Exports and Non-repatriation of Crude Oil proceeds, Hon. Seyi Sowunmi expressed concern over the flagrant breach of the Pre-shipment Inspection of Exports Act CAP. P26 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 2004, established the Nigerian Export Supervision Scheme (NESS), enacted to “prevent capital flight, ensure accurate export valuation, and safeguard Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings among other noble objectives.
“Before the enactment of the Act in 1996, Nigeria suffered endemic leakages in the form of under-valuation, delayed invoicing, price manipulation, illegal swaps, and deliberate over-loading.
“The Act provides the legal framework for the NESS and makes it mandatory for all Nigerian exports to be inspected prior to shipment in order to ascertain the quality, quantity and price of all our exports. The Act also provides for legal framework for the repatriation of the export proceeds. By law, oil export proceeds must be repatriated within 90 days from the date of shipment and 180 days for non-oil export.
“Recent allegations suggest a significant breakdown in compliance by relevant stakeholders. It is alleged that operators in the oil and gas industry failed to repatriate an estimated 40–45 per cent of Nigeria’s crude oil export proceeds, amounting to approximately USD 850 billion between 1996 and 2014, in clear contravention of the law.
“Even more worrisome is the disparity among export-earnings data reported by government agencies such as the CBN, the Department of Petroleum Resources (Now NUPRC), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the National Bureau of Statistics, as well as the inconsistencies between Nigerian and international bodies such as OPEC data.
“Non-oil export, especially solid minerals from mining activities and production and export of commodities allegedly have high non-compliant export earnings reports.
“The House of Representatives, under the able leadership of Rt. Hon Tajudeen Abass, PhD, in support of the renewed hope agenda of His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu, set up this Committee to investigate the massive revenue leakage stated above.
“The Committee would conduct investigative public hearings to determine the exact amount of oil, gas and non-oil export proceeds un-repatriated since 1996, ascertain why government agencies report conflicting export-earnings data, engage experts for forensic reconciliation of export-proceeds accounts, and investigate the management and utilisation of funds under the Nigerian Export Supervision Scheme.”
He assured that the ad-hoc committee will be “guided strictly by evidence, not speculation. Our work will be document-based, data-driven, transparent, and verifiable. Our aim is this: Nigeria must receive, in full and promptly, every dollar legally due from its exports.”
Sowunmi further noted that the success of the Ad-hoc Committee depends on “our collective support for the benefit of our great nation, Nigeria. Our measure of success is not publicity, but verifiable financial recovery to the Federation Account.
“This is a whole-of-system exercise. Operators must supply shipment-to-receipt trails; regulators must reconcile production, certification, and FX returns; financial institutions must provide account-level evidence of repatriation within time. Where breaches are discovered, appropriate civil and criminal sanctions shall be applied.”
While soliciting for the support of the Media during the investigation, he assured that the Ad-hoc Committee will “provide periodic factual updates and publish non-sensitive documents if necessary. We urge the media to focus on verifiable progress and avoid premature figures that could mislead the public.
“The Committee will actively utilise existing whistleblowing channels, guaranteeing confidentiality and possible rewards for credible information from industry staff, inspection agents, bankers, and concerned Citizens.”
To this end, he urged all stakeholders, corporate and individual, to cooperate fully with the Committee, stressing that the ad-hoc Committee’s inquiry is non-partisan but aimed at protecting and strengthening the country’s economy.
The House Committee on Public Accounts, chaired by Hon. Oluwole Oke, had on Tuesday, 15th December, 2020 carried out a similar investigation into the “payment of over N149.205 billion on crude oil lifting pre-shipment contracts paid by the Federal government since 2011 to date.”
Hon. Oke, who presided over the investigative hearing into the implementation of Nigerian Exports Supervision Scheme (NESS) vis-à-vis the payments of Pre-Shipment Inspection Agents (PIAs) and Crude Oil/Non-Oil Monitoring and Evaluation Agents (MEAs), expressed concern over the allegation bothering on the hijack of the statutory functions of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) by the contractors, is also a member of the ongoing investigation.