Senate demands oil industry transparency
Abuja - The Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) has given the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) a two-week deadline to provide it with information on how funds appropriated to it in the 2013 Budget were spent.
This is part of efforts to ensure transparency in the corporation.
“We would like to know how many aircrafts the Corporation has and how many is on hire, how many belongs to them and how much is being spent on the hiring of the aircraft. We would like to have these details,” said Chairman of the Committee, Senator Magnus Abe.
The committee also insisted that the NNPC should tender all necessary details into the crude swap agreement currently in place, as well as information on petroleum products.
The group managing director of the NNPC, Andrew Yakubu had in a letter to the National Assembly Liaison Office, requested for sufficient time from the committee so as to submit the needed information.
Reacting to the request by NNPC, Abe said, “I agree with NNPC that they need time to collate these documents and then, bring them forward. There are also issues to do with the implementation of the NNPC budget. We have also written to them to furnish us with all the details of the budget implementation as the year progresses,” he said.
Abe added that the committee accepted the reasons NNPC gave.
“We accept their reasons for not being here but I would like to seize this opportunity to ask them and very seriously call on NNPC and indeed, call on all government agencies, that cooperating with the
Legislature is important for the stability of our democracy,” said Abe.
“We need the cooperation of all agencies that are to work with us, in order to safeguard the interest of all Nigerians. So, I will plead with NNPC, to, very quickly, within the next one week, assemble all the documents that we have asked for, particularly documents relating to the distribution of petroleum products in this country and the crude-swap arrangement.”
This is part of efforts to ensure transparency in the corporation.
“We would like to know how many aircrafts the Corporation has and how many is on hire, how many belongs to them and how much is being spent on the hiring of the aircraft. We would like to have these details,” said Chairman of the Committee, Senator Magnus Abe.
The committee also insisted that the NNPC should tender all necessary details into the crude swap agreement currently in place, as well as information on petroleum products.
The group managing director of the NNPC, Andrew Yakubu had in a letter to the National Assembly Liaison Office, requested for sufficient time from the committee so as to submit the needed information.
Reacting to the request by NNPC, Abe said, “I agree with NNPC that they need time to collate these documents and then, bring them forward. There are also issues to do with the implementation of the NNPC budget. We have also written to them to furnish us with all the details of the budget implementation as the year progresses,” he said.
Abe added that the committee accepted the reasons NNPC gave.
“We accept their reasons for not being here but I would like to seize this opportunity to ask them and very seriously call on NNPC and indeed, call on all government agencies, that cooperating with the
Legislature is important for the stability of our democracy,” said Abe.
“We need the cooperation of all agencies that are to work with us, in order to safeguard the interest of all Nigerians. So, I will plead with NNPC, to, very quickly, within the next one week, assemble all the documents that we have asked for, particularly documents relating to the distribution of petroleum products in this country and the crude-swap arrangement.”
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