FG may dump Ribadu report on oil industry

FEBRUARY 5, 2013 BY NIYI ODEBODE AND OLUSOLA FABIYI 8 COMMENTS


There are strong indications that the Federal Government has commenced moves to kill the report of the Petroleum Revenue Special Task force headed by ex-boss of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nuhu Ribadu.

Three months after the Ribadu panel submitted its report on November 2, 2012, the much-expected White Paper that would make the recommendations contained in the document implementable has not been released.

Checks by The PUNCH in Abuja on Monday indicated that the Federal Government appeared to have lost interest in the report, the content of which was hailed by many analysts at the time of its presentation.

A top government source confided in one of our correspondents on Monday that the Federal Government considered the Ribadu report as “not comfortable” and that most of its “embarrassing” recommendations would be missing whenever the Wogu committee submits its report.

The source added, “Right from the outset, government displayed nonchalant attitude to the report. As things are, there are moves to either kill the report or turn down many of its recommendations.

“It seems the government believes what some people are saying that the committee did not sit enough though we know this is not true.”

Few days after Ribadu submitted the report, however, there had been concerns that the government would eventually dump it when a presidential aide described it as “inconclusive.”

President Goodluck Jonathan’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, had said the report appeared to be the work of “certain quarters” to “disparage the genuine efforts of the President to bring sanity and cleanse the Nigerian oil sector once and for all.”

Among other findings, the Ribadu Task Force said in its report that it found that whereas successive ministers of petroleum resources between 2008 and 2011 handed out seven discretionary oil licences, a total of $183m (N28.73bn) in signature bonuses paid by oil companies to the federation was missing from the deals.

During the presentation of the report, the committee’s deputy chairman, Mr. Steve Oronsaye; and another member, Benard Oti, faulted Ribadu over the process that produced the report.

Oronsaye, a former Head of Service of the Federation had alleged that the report did not reflect the position of all members, adding that they were not carried along.

But Ribadu had accused Oronsaye of staying away from the panel’s meetings.

Jonathan had nevertheless constituted a White Paper committee on the report.

The committee, led by the Minister of Labour, Mr. Emeka Wogu, was constituted since November 15 and given two weeks to submit its report.

But three months after the deadline, the committee had not submitted its report.

The committee was said to have sought for extension of time from the President.

There were reports on January 4, 2007 that the White Paper committee would submit its recommendation on January 7 but the day went without the report.

In his attack of the Ribadu report, Okupe had also accused the committee of stepping outside its terms of reference.

One of the major terms of reference of the committee, he said, was “to work with consultants and experts to determine and verify all petroleum upstream and downstream revenues (taxes, royalties, etc) due and payable to the Federal Government of Nigeria,” adding that the committee neglected that aspect of its assignment.

“Unfortunately and most regrettably, this paramount duty of the PRSTF committee could not be accomplished as stated in paragraph four of the covering note signed by chairman Ribadu and secretary of the committee,” he said.

Okupe however denied on Monday that the Federal Government planned to kill or “sit on the report.”

He said, “We just came back from the New Year break and I’m sure the committee is busy with the reports. The committee was given just three weeks to work?

“I’m sure that the report will be published very soon. There is nothing to sit on in the report. There is nothing absolutely to sit on. If there is any problem, it is strictly administrative.”

Adura_ngba: Again? We have been through all these propaganda before on a thread by the same OP on the same topic.

yokiti: And the apostles of Fresh air will not allow us to breadth. Its obvious that our commander in chief is not interested in total deliverance of Nigeria from the shackles of Corruption?
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Why am I bothering myself When those to be convicted are my President's right hand man?
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May God bless my country Nigeria with good leaders and "active" followers.

take dat: ^^^ How can a lady be this foolish? It is people like you who encourages the lackadaisical attitude of those in government and are very comfortable with maladministration so far your bread is buttered. For a committee that was given two weeks time-frame to submit a white paper that would make the recommendations in the report implementable, yet three months after nothing is heard and you dare label those willing to ask why as propagandists. You need to have your head examined!

The setting up of those committees were to serve as Red herrings. Apart from the Ribadu report, nothing is been done to the Orosanye's report on civil service reform and many others. GEJ doesn't have the political will, to grandstand is all that matters to him!

Omexonomy: If the subsidy report is implemented petrol will sell for 150 per litter. The report is advocating for the total removal of subsidy Having said that please GBAWE TAKE DAT DEMDEMMORON and the rest of the ACN Foot soldier on this st.upi.d and frudulent forum called nairaland kindly stop drinking raw enthanol and stop smoking ganger it wont do you any good in this life.

Omexonomy: If the subsidy report is implemented petrol will sell for 150 per litter. The report is advocating for the total removal of subsidy Having said that please GBAWE TAKE DAT DEMDEMMORON and the rest of the ACN Foot soldier on this st.upi.d and frudulent forum called nairaland kindly stop drinking raw enthanol and stop smoking ganger it wont do you any good in this life.

Fool, are u sure u know what is in that report? This ur lie na worldclass ooo

take dat: Featherbrained eediot without knowledge of the report's recommendations. Ignorant arrogant fool!

Omexonomy: If the subsidy report is implemented petrol will sell for 150 per litter. The report is advocating for the total removal of subsidy Having said that please GBAWE TAKE DAT DEMDEMMORON and the rest of the ACN Foot soldier on this st.upi.d and frudulent forum called nairaland kindly stop drinking raw enthanol and stop smoking ganger it wont do you any good in this life.

Demdem:

Fool, are u sure u know what us in that report? This ur lie na worldclass ooo

However, the nation was jolted last week when the Ribadu Panel report which is yet to be submitted to the president was leaked to Reuters. According to the confidential report, a total of $183m in signature bonuses paid by oil companies to the federation is missing.

Beside, the report said Nigeria may have lost $29billion in the last decade in the sweet-heart gas deals with major oil companies, such as Shell and Total, just as crude oil theft is reaching an alarming level of 250,000 barrels daily at a cost of $6.3billion per year.

The report however confirmed the saying in many quarters that in deed corruption as a cankerworm has eaten deep into the Nigeria’s oil sector. During the fuel subsidy crisis, a report from the National Assembly panel had revealed that Nigeria has lost $6.8 billion since 2009, through a fuel subsidy programme, designed in part to keep petrol prices low, is rife with corruption. According to the committee report,“If the PSF (Petroleum Support Fund) scheme was properly managed, this sum of 1.07 trillion naira ($6.8 billion) would have been available to the three tiers of government for budget enhancement.”

The report detailed what has long been suspected in Nigeria oil industry, describing a lack of accounting, overpayments, wilful disregard for regulations and outright incompetence in managing the programme.

Quoting the report of the 17-member task force, headed by Ribadu, Reuters said the146-page document provides new details on Nigeria’s long history of corruption in the oil sector, which has enriched its elite and provided the oil majors with hefty profits while two thirds of the people live in poverty.

The report concluded that oil majors - Shell, Total and Eni - made bumper profits from cut-price gas, while Nigerian oil ministers handed out licences at their own discretion. This, while not illegal, did not follow best practice of using open bids. Hundreds of millions of dollars in signature bonuses on those deals were also missing, Reuters reported.

The report alleges that international oil traders sometimes buy crude without any formal contracts, and the NNPC had short-changed the federation of billions of dollars over the last 10 years by selling crude oil and gas to itself below market rates.

The report also said foreign oil firms had outstanding debts. For example, Addax, now a unit of China’s state-owned Sinopec, owes Nigeria $1.5 billion in unpaid royalties, part of a $3 billion black hole of unpaid bonuses and royalties owed by oil bonuses.

Shell owes Nigeria’s government N137.57 billion ($874 million) for gas sold from its Bonga deep offshore field, the report said, while oil majors owed $58 million between them for gas flaring penalties. They were also not adhering to newer higher fines.

[size=14pt]The report also revealed that Nigeria was the only nation to sell all its crude through international oil traders rather than directly to refineries, adding that such trades were often opaque.
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It said some international oil traders who were not “on the approved master list of customers” had been sold crude oil “without a formal contract” so little could be obtained about the details of these deals, which can be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

“This logically will serve to reduce margins obtainable on sale of crude oil,” the report observed, said there are no informal contracts and there is “an official tender put out every year,”

NNPC gets an allocation of 445,000 bpd of crude oil to refine locally but has been selling its allocation at cut-down prices, a practice which cost Nigeria $5 billion in potential revenue between 2002 and 2011, the report said.

It said that Oil ministers between 2008 and 2011 handed out seven discretionary licences but there is $183 million in signature bonuses missing from the deals, the report said

The Ribadu committee further recommended that NNPC be re-organised or scrapped, an independent review of the use of traders to be set up, and a transparency law that should be passed requiring oil companies to disclose all payments made to Nigeria. The leaked report however attracted reactions from some quarters alleging that government was trying to cover up the report in order to protect some culprits.

Gbawe:

Look, stop following others around you worthless cretin. This development, with the disgraceful handling of the Ribadu report, is the sort making the entire world converge in criticism of Nigeria's current leadership. Many areas of National administration are in crisis. When workable solutions are suggested, the entire world has the displeasure of watching the Nigerian government, elected to deliver solutions, playing 'enemy of progress' by discrediting/ignoring those solutions that can turn things around for Nigeria. This is why many, even beyond Nigeria, are now exasperated with "fresh air" and "Mr.Transformation".

Yet clannish and reprehensible folks like you find it expedient to make everything about the "propaganda" of other posters. I just always wonder how people like you were raised to be so mentally unhealthy to the extent you can never rise above biases and affiliations enough to ever call a spade a spade. Ribadu stated Nigeria is the only major world supplier of crude selling its endowment through traders.

He suggested this practice, long rejected by others, must stop because it only abets corruption and aids lack of transparency plus mire our oil sector in sleaze and poor accountability. GEJ could demand that this odious practice stops instantly if a solutions provider. He has not done anything and sane folks, throughout the world, even if you are too clannish to be included in that category, must wonder why.

Furthermore, other equally important suggestions were ignored. Yet you can only dishonestly, disgracefully and myopically make this about "propaganda" on a blog when important issues concerning the future of a nation is discussed. Is it "propaganda" GEJ has ignored the solutions suggested? Is it propaganda that 3 months of inaction over the Ribadu report is 3 months of self-inflicted lack of progress for Nigeria? Yet on another topic, your ilk will blame the West for all Nigeria's problem.

I really dislike having to view someone like you as a fellow Nigerian. A Nigerian you are not. A highly clannish and biased person you are. Nothing else explains your jingoistic and biased stance on every issue that makes you comment inanely.

Adura_ngba: Again? We have been through all these propaganda before on a thread by the same OP on the same topic.

Omexonomy: If the subsidy report is implemented petrol will sell for 150 per litter. The report is advocating for the total removal of subsidy Having said that please GBAWE TAKE DAT DEMDEMMORON and the rest of the ACN Foot soldier on this st.upi.d and frudulent forum called nairaland kindly stop drinking raw enthanol and stop smoking ganger it wont do you any good in this life.

Gbawe:

Look, stop following others around you worthless cretin. This development, with the disgraceful handling of the Ribadu report, is the sort making the entire world converge in criticism of Nigeria's current leadership. Many areas of National administration are in crisis. When workable solutions are suggested, the entire world has the displeasure of watching the Nigerian government, elected to deliver solutions, playing 'enemy of progress' by discrediting/ignoring those solutions that can turn things around for Nigeria. This is why many, even beyond Nigeria, are now exasperated with "fresh air" and "Mr.Transformation".

Yet clannish and reprehensible folks like you find it expedient to make everything about the "propaganda" of other posters. I just always wonder how people like you were raised to be so mentally unhealthy to the extent you can never rise above biases and affiliations enough to ever call a spade a spade. Ribadu stated Nigeria is the only major world supplier of crude selling its endowment through traders.

He suggested this practice, long rejected by others, must stop because it only abets corruption and aids lack of transparency plus mire our oil sector in sleaze and poor accountability. GEJ could demand that this odious practice stops instantly if a solutions provider. He has not done anything and sane folks, throughout the world, even if you are too clannish to be included in that category, must wonder why.

Furthermore, other equally important suggestions were ignored. Yet you can only dishonestly, disgracefully and myopically make this about "propaganda" on a blog when important issues concerning the future of a nation is discussed. Is it "propaganda" GEJ has ignored the solutions suggested? Is it propaganda that 3 months of inaction over the Ribadu report is 3 months of self-inflicted lack of progress for Nigeria? Yet on another topic, your ilk will blame the West for all Nigeria's problem.

I really dislike having to view someone like you as a fellow Nigerian. A Nigerian you are not. A highly clannish and biased person you are. Nothing else explains your jingoistic and biased stance on every issue that makes you comment inanely.

GARRI (x7):


Your Pitiable senseless state once more has made you open your foul-smelling mouth to utter words devoid of common sense.

I can only shake my head for you while praying for a fast evolution of the content of the stuff you call a brain from the current fecal matter to something having the semblance of brain cells...

Gbawe:

Are you minding the cretin? Let me jog his memory and that of others who may be tempted to come here in sycophancy. People like them are the real enemies of Nigeria.


http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/ribadu-panel-s-controversial-report/129753/

Gbawe:

Please don't be fooled. Lady my azz. This forum is full of cowards who enjoy hiding behind female identities because they think that will allow them go around in mischief only for others to 'go easy' on them in return. Women, in my opinion, tend to be more honest than men. They tend to be more connected with the notion of consistently supporting what is right and just. With politics, you will find women are the least sycophantic or dogmatically inflexible anywhere in the World. It is therefore difficult to believe this character is female.

I don't think any female Nairalander will talk of "propaganda" regarding Governments duplicity and shameful inaction in a very critical sector. This is why, more and more, GEJ is being viewed a saboteur home and abroad. I think this character is just another multiple-ID fraud taking advantage of how many Nairaland male are sad saps who openly discriminate in favour of women here. The calculation is that a female ID enables them to get away with all manners of nonsense. I cannot say that calculation is wrong given what I have seen on this forum.