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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on Pre-Shipment Inspection of Exports and Non-Repatriation of Crude Oil Proceeds has vowed to recover $850 billion crude oil export proceeds between 1996 and 2014 that was allegedly not repatriated back to the country.
At the inaugural meeting of the panel, yesterday, Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee, Seyi Sowunmi, said the House was committed to blocking all revenue leakages undermining the national economy.
Sowunmi, who said there were allegations of non compliance with the Pre-shipment Inspection of Exports Act, noted that operators in the oil and gas sector reportedly failed to repatriate between 40 and 45 per cent of Nigeria’s crude oil export proceeds.
According to him, this contravenes the provision of the act, which mandates full repatriation of export earnings within 90 days for oil exports and 180 days for non-oil exports.
“The Pre-shipment Inspection of Exports Act CAP. P26 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 2004, established the Nigerian Export Supervision Scheme (NESS). Its core objective is to prevent capital flight, ensure accurate export valuation, and safeguard Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings among other objectives.
He said: “Before the enactment of the Act in 1996, Nigeria suffered endemic leakages in the form of under-valuation, delayed invoicing, price manipulation, illegal swaps, and deliberate over-loading.
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“The Act provides the legal framework for the NESS and makes it mandatory for all Nigerian exports to be inspected prior to shipment in order to ascertain quality, quantity and price of all our exports. The Act also provides for a legal framework for the repatriation of the export proceeds. By law, oil export proceeds must be repatriated within 90-days from date of shipment and 180-day for non-oil export.
“Recent allegations suggest a significant breakdown in compliance by relevant stakeholders. It is alleged that operators in the oil and gas industry failed to repatriate an estimated 40–45 percent of Nigeria’s crude oil export proceeds, amounting to approximately USD 850 billion between 1996 and 2014 in clear contravention of the law.
“Even more worrisome is the disparity among export-earnings data reported by government agencies such as the CBN, the Department of Petroleum Resources (Now NUPRC), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the National Bureau of Statistics, as well as the inconsistencies between Nigerian and international bodies such as OPEC data.
“Non-oil export, especially solid minerals from mining activities and production and export of commodities allegedly have high non-compliant export earnings reports.”
Sowunmi said the panel in the discharge of its duties, would determine the exact
amount of oil, gas and non-oil export proceeds that were not repatriated since 1996, ascertain why government agencies report conflicting export-earnings data among others.
The lawmaker, who noted that the Ad-hoc Committee will also probe the management and utilisation of funds under the NESS, said “Nigeria must receive, in full and promptly, every dollar legally due from its exports.”
