Senate slams DPR over under-remittance of revenue

The Senate, on Friday, slammed the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) over under remittance of the revenue it generated in 2019.

DPR’s Head of Planning, Mr Johnson Ajewole, had told a Senate panel at an interactive session that the agency generated N2.4trillion in 2019 but only N44.5billion was remitted into the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

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The session on 2021-2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper was organized by the Senate joint committee on Finance and Planning.

Irked by the wide gap in what was realised and remitted, the committee members dismissed Ajewole’s submission as unacceptable.

Efforts by the agency’s Head of Finance and Accounts, Mrs Lilian Ufondu, to explain the wide gap between revenue and remittance further angered the committee members.

She said, of the N2.4trillion generated by DPR in 2019, N88billion was removed as 4% collection fee, out of which N5.72billion was also remitted while the balance was used for overhead.

The committee ordered the agency to reappear before it next Tuesday and must be led by its Director, Sarki Auwalu.

The committee chairman, Senator Adeola Olamilekan Solomon, said: “Information and records presented to us by both Directors or heads of departments that have spoken are not clear and insufficient as regards budget performance of DPR within the last three years and revenue projection for 2021.

“For this committee to do proper and thorough job, comprehensive records of such budget performances must be made available latest by Monday next week, upon which your Director and other top management staff will appear before us again on Tuesday next week.

“Also, well-detailed proposals for revenue generation by the agency for 2021-2022 must be included in the expected comprehensive records.”