Mohammed Shosanya
The Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC),has said that it’s constrained to apply sanctions against the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and other licensees for certain violations in the country’s oil and gas sector.
The Chief Executive of NUPRC, Engr. Gbenga Komolafe ties the constraint to the fact that the agency was conscious of the volatility of the industry as well as Nigeria’s economic dependence on oil revenue to avoid anything that can cause untoward effects to the country.
He spoke on Monday at the further hearing of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Nigerian House of Representatives,which has also constituted two sub-committees to ascertain the state of indebtedness of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and others in Oil and Gas Industry to the Federation Account as well as analysis of NUPRC Remitta records.
Engr. Gbenga Komolafe,who responded to the issue of outstanding royalties raised in the Auditor-General 2021 report on the consolidated financial statement against his agency, said the outstanding revenue due from NNPC as of 31st Dec 2021 has been paid to the tune of $224.3m,leaving a balance of $29.6m that is still outstanding.
“NUPRC has sent a series of demand notices to the NNPC to clear the outstanding debt and even reported them to the Honourable Minister of Finance to intervene but to no avail.”
“The NUPRC has a revenue collection strategy which includes sanctions and invocation of fine and penalty sections of PIA2021,” he stated.
He assured the committee that the agency will always operate within the law and uphold best corporate governance policies.
Members of the committee demanded proof from the NUPRC that the various sums of monies alleged by the Auditor General of the Federation as uncollected revenue from the NNPC and major oil and gas operators have been recovered since the end of the 2021 financial year.
The Public Accounts Committee unanimously constituted the technical sub-committees to ascertain the state of indebtedness of NNPC and others in the Oil and Gas and report back in two weeks for further action.
Earlier in his remarks,the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Rep Bamidele Salam, assured all parties involved in hearings of the Committee’s fairness and openness in considering all queries by the Auditor General as well as other issues before it.
He said as a committee that sits in an investigative capacity, it would not pronounce anyone guilty without providing ample opportunity for defense through an open hearing.
