The Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Mr. Waziri Adio, said the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation withheld $12.9bn revenue between 2005 and 2013.
He added that the 2013 Oil and Gas Audit Report revealed that some government agencies like the NNPC and its subsidiaries also withheld $3.8bn and N358bn.
Adio said the revenue came from the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas between 2005 and 2013.
The NEITI boss said this in Abuja on Friday when he visited the headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, according to a statement by the EFCC.
He said, “The 2013 Oil and Gas Audit Report revealed that some government agencies like NNPC and its subsidiaries withheld $3.8bn and N358bn.
“Another revelation is that $12.9bn was withheld by NNPC from NLNG between 2005 and 2013.”
He said some infractions have been committed which require the prosecution of the masterminds by anti-graft agencies.
Adio lamented that NEITI’s job was purely audit and therefore had no power to prosecute.
He subsequently expressed the readiness of his agency to collaborate with the EFCC in tackling corruption in Nigeria by reporting serious infractions that violate the country’s constitution.
Adio added, “We have an Act that criminalises certain behaviours; if people do not cooperate with us, if people do not give us information on time, they are liable to be prosecuted, fined and jailed. But, we have existed for 12 to 13 years and nobody has ever been tried under our Act and that is not to say some infractions would not have occurred.
“There are a lot of findings that have come up over time about monies missing, about collusion between operators and government agencies, about possibility of money laundering, about all kinds of economic crimes that we are not in a position to push forward.”
The NEITI boss stated that deepening relationship with EFCC would help send signals to all the agencies and companies that relate with NEITI to cooperate with it.
In his response, the acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, assured the delegation that the commission was prepared to give a quick response in areas of need and to improve on the existing relationship between the two agencies.
“Where you want us to use our teeth to bite, we would readily do so,” Magu promised.