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The Ad-hoc Committee set up by the leadership of House of Representatives to investigate revenue leakages in Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has issued seven day ultimatum to all International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in Nigeria to submit documents covering gas flaring penalties.
Other stakeholders invited by the Committee include: Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Duke Oil; Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS); Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State for petroleum resources and Nigeria Products Marketing Company (NPMC).
The documents requested for include: amount paid as royalties on natural gas liquid, signature bonus and bid round fees.
Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe (PDP-Cross River) who spoke on the development last week, alleged that the sum of N6 trillion has so far been lost to revenue leakages between 2016 and 2017.
The committee said the revenue loss was largely due to DPR’s inability to exert itself as a regulatory body in the petroleum industry, which provided a leeway for IOCs to evade their financial obligations.
“Let them (IOCs) know that we’re giving them one week to provide the details on those revenue items. We will send them letter and they should respond within one week,” Jarigbe said.
Consequently, Jarigbe who acknowledged the receipt of documents submitted by Nigeria Products Marketing Company, gave one week ultimatum to all the invited stakeholders.
He however threatened that the Committee will be left with no option than to invoke relevant Legislative powers as guaranteed by the 1999 constitution (as amended) to compel the management team of all the government agencies and IOCs to respond.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
