… Reps Committee Didn’t Allow Us Clarify Alleged Revenue Leakage Claims- Commission
The Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has described the allegation of N32.15bn revenue leakage as unfounded and baseless, adding that there were no revenue leakages as claimed.
The upstream petroleum regulator also said the alleged transfer directly to private accounts in Deposit Money Banks without adhering to Treasury Single Account (TSA) protocols was baseless.
News reports (Not by NewsNGR) had claimed that the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had uncovered N32,151,775,466.87 revenue leakages in the document submitted by NUPRC on revenue generated for the federal government from 2015 to 2022.
Another allegation was that the committee found that N909,392,169.74 had been transferred directly to private accounts in Deposit Money Banks without recourse to TSA protocols.
The reports further alleged discrepancies, including N15,476,269,397.10 in transactions listed in Remita and N6,332,212,384.25 in transactions from the NUPRC data set that did not appear in Remita.
However, the NUPRC in response to the allegations said “There was no revenue leakages as reported.”
In defending the allegations, the regulator said that it submitted a detailed report to the Public Account Committee of the National Assembly with “evidence to show that the unremitted sum was from Modified Carry Agreement (MCA) and DSDP from NNPCL. This, the NUPRC noted, was not paid on time due to loading of the allotted cargoes. The Commission stated further that it provided evidence of correspondences with NNPCL requesting for the payments and evidence of payments backed up by statements from Accountant General’s JP Morgan’s Account confirming the payments when payments were made.
NUPRC also explained that it “provided FAAC reports of NNPCL where other sum was admitted by FAAC for payment of Government Priority Project as approved by Mr. President.”
The commission explained how it was not granted audience to speak on the report “because the Committee had not had time to go through the report.”
To clarify the alleged non-adherence to the TSA protocols and discrepancies between transactions on Remita and the NUPRC report, the commission said all the details generated for the transaction were from Remita platform.
NUPRC clarified, “The detail transactions which the Commission reported to the Committee were generated from the Remita Platform.
“NUPRC collections processed through the Remita platform are initiated through Enterprise Automated Portal, most of which are legacy portals inherited from the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
“It is pertinent to note that due to paucity of funds, the defunct DPR consummated the transactions that culminated in the development and deployment of these portals through public-private partnership (PPP), the private entities that provided Technological expertise and funding of the portal are to recover the initial cash outlay (investment) through service charges which are different from the statutory fees for the permits and authorisations processed on those platforms.”
NUPRC said the claims of remita discrepancies involving N15.4bn and N6.3bn were misleading.
“Without conceding to the values brandished in the publication as discrepancies, one can understand that the value on remita includes the service charge paid by applicants, from which the investors recoup their investment,” NUPR explained.
On direct transfers to private accounts in banks, the NUPRC said it followed due process in line with TSA protocol.
“Arising from the foregoing, the allegations in the publication that money was transferred directly to private accounts in Deposit Money Banks without adhering to TSA protocols is baseless, as PPP arrangements to enhance revenue collection and ease of doing business without impacting statutory revenue are sanctioned under the TSA,” the commission added.