An anti-corruption organisation, the Network Against Corruption and Trafficking (NACAT), has called for a probe of the budget of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), which it noted has over the years had its budget shrouded in secrecy.
Addressing journalists in Abuja today, NACAT Executive Director of Investigation, Fejiro Oliver Tega, said if nothing was done to probe the NMDPRA’s budget, his organisation would be left with no other option than to petition the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to step in and conduct a thorough investigation.
According to Tega, NMDPRA under the current management had never made its budget available to the public, adding that the agency’s 2025 budget was not only overinflated but also padded with frivolities in the name of both local and foreign training.
He then called on the budget committees of both the Senate and House of Representatives to request the NMDPRA’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and other management staff of the agency to appear before the National Assembly in the full glare of Nigerians to defend the budget on the floor of both chambers.
While informing that the staff strength of the agency is 1,367, Tega alleged that the sum of N2,430,240,000 was budgeted for local and foreign travels for a few staff, while another sum of N3,129,474,483 was also budgeted for local travel and transport (other) and wondered what the “other” meant.
According to him: “Nigerians have never been privy to the breakdown of the budget of NMDPRA and how they spend the resources belonging to us as a nation.
“Under travel and transport with code number 22020101, the agency budgeted a staggering sum of N2,430,240,000 for local travel and transport.
“We wish to bring to your notice that the agency has a staff strength of 1,367 as of the 2023 nominal roll in our possession and very few persons are selected for training.
“NMDPRA does not need beyond the sum of N200 million for its training locally, which is carried out in Abuja and Lagos.
“In a bizarre way of fleecing the nation, it budgeted another N3,129,474,483 for the same local travel & transport (other). What is other?”
He lamented that at a time when Nigerians still bear the brunt of subsidy removal, a government agency proposed to spend over N7 billion for the training of a few staff abroad.
“For international travel and transport, it budgeted N7,105,640,000, which is not only outrageous but also very uncharitable to Nigerians who are still suffering from the hardship meted on them by subsidy removal, while a few persons waste over N7 billion to fly abroad in the name of training.
“The agency went further to budget another N3,892,608,000 for the same international travel & transport. What is N11 billion doing for an international trip of less than twenty persons that will likely be sent there?
“The budget for training is not only corrupt and duplicated but padded. In code number 220205, NMDPRA brazenly budgeted another N1,252,470,000 for local training and N4,889,600,000 for international training, which is a total of N6,142,070,000,” Tega said.
He then said NACAT would write to the EFCC, as the organisation did in the cases of former governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State and former governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom.
According to him, “We will also be writing to the EFCC, as we did with our petition on former Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State, which they are facing probe.”
The recent invitation and questioning of former governor Emmanuel by the EFCC over allegations of diversion of N700 billion during his eight-year tenure was as a result of the petition NACAT wrote to the anti-corruption agency, dated January 21, 2025, in which it alleged “wanton corruption and embezzlement of public funds orchestrated by former governor Udom Emmanuel”.
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