Allegations of concealment of information and data in the 2021 Oil and Gas Industry Audit Report credited to one ABZ Integrated Ltd deserves no serious attention, the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has said.
Reacting to media reports on the allegations by the private firm notorious for falsehood, NEITI said the claims were not only unfounded and spurious, but also fictitious, incorrect and frivolous.
The Executive Secretary of NEITI, Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, said ABZ Integrated Ltd made an unfair demand from the National Assembly through the House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions seeking to compel the Federal Government to pay it 5% “whistleblowers fee” as reward from recoveries that may arise from the false allegation.
Orji said allegations of concealment of information and data in NEITI’s audit reports are not only strange to the system, but blatantly fictitious, incorrect, false and frivolous.
“NEITI hereby restates that the openness required by the stakeholders’ driven process of the global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which NEITI is implementing in Nigeria, does not have any room for concealment of information and data,” Orji said.
“It is equally important to clarify that the NEITI process is not designed for any individual or group to seek financial reward or reap unfair and selfish benefits,” Orji added.
Although the Executive Secretary said NEITI had already made a comprehensive presentation that clearly addressed all the issues raised in the uninformed petition, he said he believes ignorant elements behind the misinformation by ABZ Integrated Ltd deserve proper education and enlightenment on the NEITI processes.
“NEITI believes those behind the false conjectures in the allegations need help. That’s the reason we have issued a detailed response to avoid any individual or group under any guise, misleading the House Committee, the National Assembly and the general public. We ask members of the House of Representatives to dismiss the claims in the petition, because they are frivolous and lacking merit.
For instance, on the issue of Cash Call Payments, which the petitioner alleged were concealed, Orji said NEITI had referred the petitioner to pages 104-107 of the NEITI 2021 Oil and Gas Industry Report already in the public domain and on the agency’s website: www.neiti.gov.ng where detailed information and data on cash call payments and general management, including recommendations, were publicly declared in facts and figures.
Similar disclosures, Orji said, were also common features in NEITI’s previous years’ reports of the sector, adding that a review of the petition from ABZ Integrated Ltd, a copy of which was forwarded to NEITI, showed poor understanding of the sector issues, gaping gaps and huge misconception about the NEITI process.
“We are concerned about the quality of the largely poorly written petition. We consider it a matter of urgency for ABZ Integrated Ltd, to be helped, educated and enlightened on the basic principles, methods, processes and standards guiding the EITI Reports, the multi-stakeholders’ framework involved and the responsibilities of the government, companies and the civil society at every stage of the EITI/NEITI process.
“NEITI also considers the petition a huge distraction, coming at a time that data from NEITI’s report has been internationally acknowledged and endorsed to be credible by the global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative in its recently released report of Nigeria’s international validation assessment.
In the assessment, Orji said Nigeria recorded its highest score of 90 points on data integrity, comprehensiveness of report, outcomes and impacts, contribution to economic growth and adherence to legal frameworks, a pointer to the enormous and painstaking efforts in generating the information and data contained in NEITI’s industry reports.
Also, the Executive Secretary said it was important to enlighten the petitioners that the tendency to seek financial entitlements from the NEITI process was a futile attempt at gold digging, likening it to chasing the wind.
While NEITI welcomes criticisms of its processes, Orji advised the petitioners that such criticisms need to be informed, constructive, factual and evidence-based, and capable of promoting quality public debates.
“NEITI therefore urges the petitioner to avail itself of the free education, enlightenment and capacity-building opportunity it offers on the NEITI/EITI process, its overall target of incentivizing reforms that enable natural resource revenues to support national development and poverty reduction in our society,” Orji said.
