The Senate Committee on Public Accounts has resolved to summon the heads of some organisations and gamers in the oil sector over discrepancies in records of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) imports into Nigeria between 2021 and 2023.
The organisations are the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).
The committee’s chairperson, Ibrahim Dankwambo, introduced the decision on Tuesday after the NMDPRA appeared earlier than the panel to answer queries raised in NEITI’s Oil and Gas Industry Audit Report protecting the interval.
Mr Dankwambo, who represents Gombe North Senatorial District, stated the heads of the three companies could be required to elucidate the discrepancies and work in direction of reconciling the conflicting figures.
The senator, a former Accountant-General of the Federation, expressed dissatisfaction with the numerous variations between the PMS import figures offered by the NMDPRA and people recorded by NNPCL for 2022 and 2023.
Rabiu Umar, the chief govt of the NMDPRA, was represented on the listening to by Uzoamaka Ugwu-Ojobe, a director in the company.
Ms Ugwu-Ojobe instructed the lawmakers that the authority recorded 3.29 billion litres of PMS imports in 2022 and 6.02 billion litres in 2023. These figures differed considerably from NNPCL’s records of 6.27 billion litres and three.88 billion litres for the respective years.
She maintained that the NMDPRA’s figures have been credible regardless of the discrepancies.
“We stand by 3.29 billion litres of PMS as volume imported in 2022 and 6.02 billion litres as volume imported in 2023 against 6.27 billion litres recorded by NNPCL in 2022 and 3.88 billion litres in 2023,” she stated.
However, her rationalization did not persuade members of the committee, who questioned how two authorities companies chargeable for totally different elements of the petroleum sector might preserve such divergent records of gasoline imports.
Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central) rejected the characterisation of the discrepancies as slight, arguing that the variations have been substantial and required a radical investigation.
“The disparities in records of PMS importation between NMDPRA and NNPCL in 2022 and 2023, as stated in the NEITI Oil and Gas Industry Audit Report of 2021 to 2023, are too wide to be described as slight or being looked into without the seriousness required,” Mr Ningi stated.
Another committee member, Francis Faduyile (APC, Ondo South), stated the conflicting figures raised issues concerning the accuracy of the companies’ records.
Mr Faduyile, a professor of medication, stated the discrepancies prompt that additional clarification was essential to determine the reliability of the figures.
Similarly, Anietan Bassey (APC, Akwa Ibom North-east), known as for a complete investigation to find out the explanations for the variations and establish these accountable if any wrongdoing was established.
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“These questionable records of volume of PMS importation by the two agencies must be thoroughly investigated to save Nigerians from being yearly shortchanged and expose those milking the country dry,” Mr Bassey stated.
Following the exchanges, the committee rejected the NMDPRA’s rationalization and resolved to summon the heads of the three companies for a joint assembly.
“In view of the unacceptability of presentations made by the representative of NMDPRA on queries raised against it in the NEITI Oil and Gas Audit Report covering 2021 to 2023, specifically on the volume of PMS imported within the years under review, this committee resolved to summon the heads of NMDPRA, NNPCL and NEITI for reasons behind the wide disparities,” Mr Dankwambo stated.
The proposed assembly is predicted to make clear the conflicting records and set up whether or not the discrepancies arose from variations in reporting strategies or different elements requiring additional investigation.
The committee’s decision comes amid issues concerning the reliability of official records on petroleum imports and the necessity to strengthen accountability in Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector.
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