The House of Representatives’ Committee on Petroleum Upstream has queried the Nigeria Extractive IndustriesTransparency Initiative, NEITI, over bogus figures it says has failed to take into cognisance, the nation’s current economic crunch.
The lawmakers have now set up a sub committee to meet with the agency to sort out areas of grave concerns.
The Executive Secretary of NEITI, Orji Ogbonaya, is before the committee to account for the agency’s 2024 expenditure and the 2025 spending plan.
He says the agency is working with the EFCC to recover N6bn stolen fund and another N66bn owed the government by operators in the sector.
He gives a breakdown of the agency’s proposed N6.5 billion as 2025 budget.
Personnel cost is at N2.2 billion, Overhead stands at N1.7 billion and a capital expenditure of N2.5 billion.
The agency plans to spend N175m on the repair of the new office gates, N155m for purchase of additional vehicles, N167 million for data acquisition, N38 million for library books and N8.1m for acquisition of photocopiers.
Committee members fault the arrangement of the budget lines.
They also raised concerns over the budget line of N32m proposed as welfare for stakeholders, including national Assembly members.
But NEITI insists it is a specialised agency with standards to meet in the international community.
