TheCable

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has asked the national assembly to amend its establishment act to enable it function better.

Waziri Adio, executive secretary of NEITI, made the request when the agency appeared before the house committee on petroleum (upstream) on Tuesday for an oversight meeting.

In 2007, the NEITI Act was signed into law to back the agency, after Nigeria voluntarily signed up to the global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in 2003.

According to Adio, an amendment of the establishment act will also ensure stable funding for the agency.

“We are interested in the amendment of the act so that we can function well. We are not comfortable with the way the agency has been functioning,” he said.

He said in addition to appropriation, NEITI operations are also funded through support from World Bank and other development partners.

Adio added that the agency has published 11 cycles of oil and gas audit reports, nine cycles of solid minerals reports and two cycles of fiscal allocations and statutory disbursement audit reports since 2004.

“The 2018 oil and gas report and that of solid minerals were released in March this year, which set a record among the 53 year tier developing countries in terms of being released on time,” he added.

“Within the EITI, you are allowed to release your report within two years of the year that you are covering. So, the 2018 report is due by the end of year 2020.

“But this year, we were able to beat that record and we released it in March this year, which was widely acknowledged by the EITI.”

The NEITI boss added that Nigeria was in 2019 adjudged to have attained satisfactory progress, which is the highest level of disclosure within the EITI “on the account of what NEITI does with stakeholders”.

“And this is a status achieved only by seven out of the 53 EITI countries,” he said.

He, however, said the agency has been experiencing various challenges including operating in a rented building.

“We have been struggling to pay rent. To achieve this, we have been partnering with some agencies,” he added.

Musa Sarki-Adar, the committee chairman, enjoined NEITI to improve on its staff strength, saying: “If your staff are not on ground, you will only rely on what was written and submitted to you.”