Financial Energy Review
……….by Jenifer Dike……..
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) may be invited to recover the N135 billion that was irregularly accessed through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) by some 15 gas companies under the Nigeria Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP).
The Senate Committee on Gas has said that the involvement of the anti-graft agencies has become necessary given that it was discovered that there were inconsistencies in the process of disbursement of the fund and more so is the fact that some of the companies that received the money have nothing on ground to show what the money was used for.
“The observation of the committee is that there are inconsistencies in the process and the committee may not hesitate to involve the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to recover the funds. Some of the beneficiaries did not follow the guidelines. For instance, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources is not even aware that the funds have been released” the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Jarigbe Jarigbe said.
“We have also discovered that some of the companies do not have anything on ground since they got the loan. The committee would investigate all the observations and work on them and let Nigerians know the true position of things,” He added.
The Director of Gas in the ministry, Oluremi Komolafe, told the Committee that the Ministry was not aware of the disbursement of the fund even though it partnered with the CBN on the scheme. She added that 150 applications were received and 69 companies were recommended and presently 16 applications were being processed. She said none of the firms whose applications were being processed made the list of the beneficiaries of the scheme. Some of the firms that claimed that they had no business with either the ministry or the CBN were rebuked by the committee
It will be recalled that NIPCO, Hyde and Dangote and GreenVille LNG were among the top 15 companies that were invited to appear before the Senate Committee on Gas to explain how they utilized the N135 Billion they had received from the Central Bank of Nigeria as intervention fund under the Nigeria Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP).
The Senate Committee on Gas had said in the letter to that 15 companies that they are required to appear before the committee with their progress reports stating location of projects and the current status of the projects.
The breakdown of the disbursed funds to the companies showed that NIPCO Gas Limited received N25 billion; NIPCO Plc received N5 billion; Hyde Energy limited received N2 billion; Delta State government N20 billion; Dangote N5 billion; Greenville LNG N10 billio; Gas Nexus N10 billion; Pinnacle Oil and Gas N10 billion; Lee Engineering N15 billion am others.
The lawmakers described as unacceptable, the alleged lack of synergy between the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the CBN on the project. They also queried the discriminatory disbursement of the funds to the beneficiaries and wondered why some firms collected more than the N10bn credit limit. The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Jarigbe, collected the records of the beneficiaries and the locations of their project sites for immediate investigation. He lamented that the funds released under the gas expansion and intervention fund were inappropriately accessed.
