The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has said that it didn’t accuse the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) of N32.15bn revenue leakage and non-compliance with the Treasury Single Account protocols.
The Chairman of the Committee, Honourable Salam Bamidele, said this on Monday in his introductory remark at the continuation of the hearing of the Auditor General’s Report which is before the Public Account Committee.
Bamidele said the committee is critical to protecting public interest, particularly revenue generation.
“We have not said or accused NUPRC of revenue leakage as reported by the media. We cannot control their narrative, but I don’t know where they got it from.”
He further stated that the committee does not pass judgment without careful and rigorous assessment of issues.
News reports (Not by THE WHISTLER) 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.
Reports had alleged further 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.
Also, there were allegations of 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
Hon Bamidele said that the NUPRC is a critical agency, adding that the committee does not pass a conclusion on sensitive issues involving revenue without critical assessment.
The NUPRC Chief Executive, Gbenga Komolafe, told the committee that the commission works in line with the Petroleum Industry Act 2021.
He said that as a regulator, the NUPRC is bound by the provisions of the PIA.
Komolafe assured the committee that it has all the documents to defend its position on the allegations.
Recall that the NUPRC had disclosed that it was not given time to defend the report adding, “because the Committee had not had time to go through the report.”
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.
Clarifying 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 detailed 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.
BREAKING: Reps Committee Denies Accusing NUPRC Of N32bn Revenue Leakage, Non-Compliance With TSA is first published on The Whistler Newspaper