The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) have signed a pact to share information and data in order to check fraud and other financial malpractices in Nigeria’s extractive sector operations.
Obiageli Onuorah, Deputy Director and NEITI’s Head, Communications and Advocacy, conveyed the signing of the pact in a statement.
According to her, the Executive Secretary of NEITI, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji and Mr Modibbo Haman Tukur, the Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit made the commitment at the signing ceremony at the NEITI Secretariat in Abuja.
She was quoted in a statement as saying that the agencies committed to collaborate on information and data sharing and joint preventive and remediation action on governance, process and corruption issues in Nigeria’s extractive sector.
Executive Secretary of NEITI, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji commended the formalization of the NEITI/NFIU relations,adding that following the signing of the pact, the next stage is to activate the contents of the agreement and this will happen in the next couple of months”.
Dr Orji added that the “Essence of this partnership is underpinned in our partnering with NFIU to providing intelligence, information and data on the Extractive Sector industries that will aid Investigation into infractions that border on criminality in Nigeria’s oil, gas and mining sectors, especially in the areas where these activities undermine our national securities as revealed in the NEITI Audit Reports, occasional papers and policy briefs, as well as regular capacity building, trainings and awareness workshops”, he explained.
The transparency Boss asserted that NEITI has the information and data on extractive sector operations and applauded the collaboration with sister agencies like the EFCC and the ICPC which he said is yielding dividends.
“It gives us great comfort that there are sister agencies that are committed to national governance and development priorities like NEITI. We have identified the NFIU as one of them and will work very closely with them to achieve the objectives especially in the area of knowing who actually owns Nigeria’s oil, gas and mining assets”, the Executive Secretary stated.
He explained that the agency is committed to the continuous and spontaneous disclosure of data and information that will ensure that more recoveries of unremitted funds into government coffers are made and support the validation of any disclosed data.
He reiterated the agency’s readiness to support the recovery of all unremitted funds into the treasury.
According to Dr. Orji, “NEITI’s job is to provide information and data on transactions and operations in Nigeria’s extractive sector and put the information in the public domain. It is the responsibility of policy makers, the media, civil society and the citizens to use the information and data to hold government and companies accountable. So when we find in our reports some money that can be deployed to address citizens demands for good governance, it is our job to escalate these findings”.
The Chief Executive Officer of NFIU, Mr Modibbo Haman Tukur, disclosed that the President has approved the recoveries of the debts owed the Federation by government agencies and oil and gas companies in the country’s extractive sector.
“The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning has been directed to constitute a recovery panel which will have as members, NEITI, the EFCC, ICPC, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and other relevant government agencies to look into the liabilities of operators in the extractive sector”.
