Senate panel summons NMDPRA, NNPC, NEITI over discrepancies in petrol import records

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The Senate Committee on Public Accounts has resolved to summon the heads of some organisations and players in the oil sector over discrepancies in records of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) imports into Nigeria between 2021 and 2023.

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The organisations are the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).

The committee’s chairperson, Ibrahim Dankwambo, announced the resolution on Tuesday after the NMDPRA appeared before the panel to respond to queries raised in NEITI’s Oil and Gas Industry Audit Report covering the period.

Mr Dankwambo, who represents Gombe North Senatorial District, said the heads of the three agencies would be required to explain the discrepancies and work towards reconciling the conflicting figures.

The senator, a former Accountant-General of the Federation, expressed dissatisfaction with the significant differences between the PMS import figures presented by the NMDPRA and those recorded by NNPCL for 2022 and 2023.

Rabiu Umar, the chief executive of the NMDPRA, was represented at the hearing by Uzoamaka Ugwu-Ojobe, a director in the agency.

Ms Ugwu-Ojobe told the lawmakers that the authority recorded 3.29 billion litres of PMS imports in 2022 and 6.02 billion litres in 2023. These figures differed significantly from NNPCL’s records of 6.27 billion litres and 3.88 billion litres for the respective years.

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She maintained that the NMDPRA’s figures were credible despite the discrepancies.

“We stand by 3.29 billion litres of PMS as volume imported in 2022 and 6.02 billion litres as volume imported in 2023 against 6.27 billion litres recorded by NNPCL in 2022 and 3.88 billion litres in 2023,” she said.

However, her explanation failed to convince members of the committee, who questioned how two government agencies responsible for different aspects of the petroleum sector could maintain such divergent records of fuel imports.

Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central) rejected the characterisation of the discrepancies as slight, arguing that the differences were substantial and required a thorough investigation.

“The disparities in records of PMS importation between NMDPRA and NNPCL in 2022 and 2023, as stated in the NEITI Oil and Gas Industry Audit Report of 2021 to 2023, are too wide to be described as slight or being looked into without the seriousness required,” Mr Ningi said.

Another committee member, Francis Faduyile (APC, Ondo South), said the conflicting figures raised concerns about the accuracy of the agencies’ records.

Mr Faduyile, a professor of medicine, said the discrepancies suggested that further clarification was necessary to establish the reliability of the figures.

Similarly, Anietan Bassey (APC, Akwa Ibom North-east), called for a comprehensive investigation to determine the reasons for the differences and identify those responsible if any wrongdoing was established.

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“These questionable records of volume of PMS importation by the two agencies must be thoroughly investigated to save Nigerians from being yearly shortchanged and expose those milking the country dry,” Mr Bassey said.

Following the exchanges, the committee rejected the NMDPRA’s explanation and resolved to summon the heads of the three agencies for a joint meeting.

“In view of the unacceptability of presentations made by the representative of NMDPRA on queries raised against it in the NEITI Oil and Gas Audit Report covering 2021 to 2023, specifically on the volume of PMS imported within the years under review, this committee resolved to summon the heads of NMDPRA, NNPCL and NEITI for reasons behind the wide disparities,” Mr Dankwambo said.

The proposed meeting is expected to clarify the conflicting records and establish whether the discrepancies arose from differences in reporting methods or other factors requiring further investigation.

The committee’s resolution comes amid concerns about the reliability of official records on petroleum imports and the need to strengthen accountability in Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector.