Members of the House of Representatives Committees on Finance and National Planning have expressed displeasure over the expenditure of the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
The lawmakers were displeased especially with the high personal expenditure including salaries, and a drop in the commission’s non-tax remittance.
At an interactive session focused on the 2025-2027 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), members of the committees quizzed key agencies in Abuja, on Friday.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NUPRC, Gbenga Komolafe, presented the commission’s financial records to the expressed displeasure of the lawmakers.
Rep. James Faleke, the chairman of the House Committee on Finance, who presided over the session argued that the NUPRC spending over N80 billion on staff salaries in a year is implausible.
“I’m wondering what type of organisation you have. You are paying N88 billion as salaries. How many staff do you have?” he queried the CEO.
A breakdown of NUPRC Financial records as presented to the Committees
Fasina informed the committee that the commission’s non-tax remittance dropped from N3.67 billion in 2022 to N1.77 billion in 2023.
He explained that the NUPRC generated revenues from oil royalty, gas royalty, concession rental, gas flat penalty, including fines and levies, signature bonuses, and renewal of licenses.
He explained that the commission statutorily got four percent Cost Of Revenue Collection (CORC) for the total revenue it collected on behalf of the Federal Government.
This, he added, was credited directly to the Federation Account, and FAAC credits the 4% to the Commission.
He said, “The CORC amounted to N114.84 billion in 2023 as against N114.38 billion in 2022. The amount released in 2023 includes N2.82 billion for capital expenditure, though N173.77 billion was due as 4% on the actual collections of N14.34 trillion in 2023.
“The commission also generates revenues internally, such as registration fees, license fees, fines, recoveries, among others.”
He added that it generated N1.44 billion in 2023 compared to N30.08 billion in 2022, and this accounts for 1.26% of the total revenue realised in 2023 and 2.62% in 2022, respectively.
Fasina informed the committee that the commission recorded a higher expenditure in 2023 than it did in 2022. It spent N82.35 billion on personnel costs which represents 70.19 percent of the total expenses of N117.33 billion. This is followed by overhead costs of N31.63 billion, which accounts for 26.96 billion.
Outcome of the interrogation
The committees asked the NUPRC to return to them with details of all oil production, crude sales, and other activities in the upstream petroleum industry in the country.
In his final ruling on the matter, Faleke said, “You will have to come back with all the records of all the wells that produce the oil, litre by litre, per day. How much oil do we get from here every day?”