Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
(NEITI) has invited the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and some
oil companies to streamline its audit report of petroleum proceeds accruing to
the Federal Government between 2009 and 2011. Also invited are Shell Petroleum
Development Company (SPDC), Chevron Nigeria Limited, and Nigeria Agip Oil
Company (NAOC) Ltd among others to validate and reconcile payments they made to
the government.
The invitation is also extended to all companies and
government agencies involved in payment and receipt of revenue from Nigeria’s
petroleum sector is expected to validate all payments within the period under
review to avoid condemnation of its audit report when published.
It is also expected that the exercise will afford all
parties involved an opportunity to reconcile such payments with data collected
by NEITI’s independent auditors, as well as review presentations on system
documentation by companies and relevant government agencies in line with the
audit requirement.
Others companies to appear before it in Lagos are NNPC,
SPDC, NAOC, Chevron, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO),
Nigeria Agip Exploration (NAE), Agip Energy Natural Resources (AENR), Mobil
Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited,
Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) and CONOCO Phillips.
Also among the list are the Office of the Accountant General
of the Federation, Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), Nigeria Gas Company
(NGC), Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), Federal Inland Revenue Services
(FIRS), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN),
Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigeria
Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS).
The invited companies are expected to tender documents such
as system documentation on production and financial flows including payments
and receipts of such flows by relevant government agencies on behalf of the
federation as well as evidence of streams of payments made by companies.
NEITI’s audit of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector has come with
disclosure of anomalies in revenue remittance by oil and gas companies to the
federation account, with NNPC majorly accused in the audit reports of falling
short in its remittance of oil proceeds to the government.
