The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has absolved the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency of responsibility for the N4.423bn debt it claimed arose from over-recovery collected from independent oil marketers between 2008 and 2009.
This was contained in a joint statement signed by the Executive Secretaries of NEITI and PPPRA, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed and Mr. Reginald Stanley, respectively.
The statement detailed that a reconciliatory meeting was held between the two agencies on Tuesday over the 2009-2011 Oil and Gas NEITI Industry Audit Report, which has been the subject of controversy in the past few days.
The statement said the N4.423bn in dispute had been reconciled and traced to the Petroleum Support Fund account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
NEITI also said there was “nothing outstanding against PPPRA on the said amount.”
The statement said, “Following the sustained media engagement between the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency and the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative over the recently released 2009-2011 industry audit in the oil and gas sector, and the findings as they affect the PPPRA, a joint meeting between the two agencies was held today, August 13, 2013, in Abuja, with the managements of the two agencies in attendance.
“The joint reconciliation meeting, after exhaustive and useful deliberations, resolved that the sum of N4.423bn in dispute has been reconciled and traced to the Petroleum Support Fund account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria.”
The meeting also resolved that there was nothing outstanding against the PPPRA on the said amount, while it evolved strategies for both NEITI and the PPPRA to address other issues arising from the report.