The Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has said that the Federal Government will recover over N232 billion (1.5 billion dollars) overpayment made to “fraudulent” oil marketers.
Okonjo-Iweala, who is also the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, made the plan known at the National Council of Finance and Economic Development (NACOFED) in Minna on Thursday.
She said that in 2006, the total petroleum subsidies paid to oil marketing firms amounted to N256 billion (about 1.6 billion dollars) and by 2011 the bill for petroleum subsidy payments had risen sharply to nearly N2.10 trillion (13 billion dollars).
“Even more striking was the increase in the number of oil marketing firms. While most countries have a few well-organised fuel importers, Nigeria had a total of 143 such firms as at 2011.
“The certification process to verify the actual delivery of imported fuel was also very lax, resulting in widespread fraud in the operation of the scheme,’’ she said.
The minister said there were cases where some firms submitted payment invoices for fuel deliveries in Nigeria when their stated cargo ships were actually berthed elsewhere in South America on the same dates.
She said that the subsidised prices for domestic gasoline in Nigeria also created arbitrage opportunities and resulted in widespread smuggling of fuel products to Nigeria’s neighbouring countries.
To this effect, she said, Nigeria embarked on a comprehensive reform of the downstream petroleum sector by appointing the AIG Imoukhede-led Committee, who discovered lapses in the payment processes.
“Following the discoveries, the Federal Government put in place a number of remedial measures to combat fraud in the subsidy scheme.
“First, a tighter payment regime was introduced with new auditors and stricter guidelines for disbursement of subsidy payments. The increased scrutiny has slowed down the payment process somewhat but also greatly reduced the likelihood of fraudulent payments.
“ Second, we published the names of fraudulent oil marketing companies in the national press and are in the process of prosecuting these fraudulent marketers to reclaim the stolen funds,’’ she said.
To prevent further more fraudulent payment claims, she said the government was introducing three electronic payment systems and oversight platforms.
“The new Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information Systems will allow direct payment of government workers based on biometrics data. This has so far saved government over N119 billion through the elimination of ghost workers.
“Also a Government Integrated Financial Management Information System electronically links the treasury to other government departments and enables faster and more transparent movement of funds,’’ she explained.
Okonjo-Iweala said that all these were the government’s way to provide checks and balances in the prudent management of public funds.
