Nigeria saves N671b in oil subsidy claims
Nigeria’s Federal Government saved N671 billion in fuel subsidy claims within the past 10 months, following stringent measures adopted by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPRA) to check fraud in the downstream sector.
The Executive Secretary of the PPPRA, Mr Reginald Stanley, who made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja, said that government spent N1.3 trillion on such claims in the first 10 months of last year.
Stanley vowed that there was no more space for fraudsters to operate in the downstream, noting that the agency would no longer allow marketers to fleece the government.
He explained that the drastic expenditure reduction was achieved because of the foresight of President Goodluck Jonathan and the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke, whom he said, had stood firm in their resolve to clean up the rot that previously characterised the downstream.
“The Federal Government through the PPPRA has been able to prune the size of briefcase marketers from 128 to 38. The PPPRA has successfully weeded 90 companies and set stringent regulatory conditions that made it difficult for marketers to short-change the system.
“We are more than determined to drag marketers to the Economic and Financial Crimes 
He lauded government for taking steps to stamp out fuel subsidy scams, saying that government’s efforts at enthroning transparency and accountability had started yielding positive results.
Stanley noted that the PPPRA had become a model organisation, alive to its responsibilities, remarking that actions taken by the company in the past year had pointed to the fact that a lot was being done to sanitise the downstream and make it profitable for honest operators.
Reeling out the payment data in the course of the year, the PPPRA chief disclosed that “out of the N679 billion subsidy payment made between January and October, the NNPC got N337.7 billion while other marketers received a combined figure of N342 billion.
“This is as against N1.351 trillion paid within the same period last year that is from January to October,’’ he added.
Stanley said that the absence of measures aimed at enforcing transparency and accountability in the administration of the subsidy regime spurred him into carrying out some of the reforms, geared at engendering pubic trust and belief in government’s sincerity in downstream activities.
He listed some reforms made by the new management of the PPPRA to include restricted participation in fuel importation to only owners of coastal discharge/depot facilities, aimed at substantially reducing participation in the PSF Scheme.
According to him, the move further motivated investments in the development of petroleum handling facilities and ensured better management of participants in the PSF scheme while promoting local content development.
Stanley said that the PPPRA now conducted monthly import performance review meetings and was resolving marketers’ complaints through effective mediation, to ensure that marketers’ confidence in importing fuel was restored in the light of the subsidy removal debate and budget approval uncertainties.
He said further that the agency had also engaged the services of certified cargo inspectors to enhance operational efficiency and accountability in products receipts, in line with international best practices.
According to him, the measure will also ensure that the agency’s workers are available to take physical discharge valves at depots to eliminate chances of back-loading malpractices.
Reacting to reports making the rounds about “jumbo salaries and allowances of PPPRA staff,’’ the PPPRA helmsman described the reports as spurious, unfounded, misleading and a gross misrepresentation of what he said while appearing before the Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Representatives on Petroleum (Downstream).
He said that the sum of N5.7 billion, when broken down into sub-heads, actually accounted for staff salaries and allowances, national contributory pension, pension payments, National Health Insurance Scheme, pay-as-you-earn tax element, overheads and other sundry deductions, consistent with what obtained in other MDAs, especially in the oil and gas sector.
“In as much as we all agree that there were issues in the industry, the agency has since risen to the challenge to breathe fresh air into an industry that has suffered from enormous abuses.
“If only for this, we expect our critics to acknowledge our efforts and be circumspect in their appraisal of our activities.
“Our doors are always open to public scrutiny and we hope that the sustainability of our reform initiatives is bound to further convince the majority of Nigerians on the inherent benefits of our efforts and the commitment of Mr President to the elevation of the downstream sub-sector for greater efficiency,’’ he stated.
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