Senate on Thursday directed the Accountant General of the Federation Ahmed Idris to investigate payments am $18 billion as dividends from Nigeria’s investment in Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) from 2004 to 2019.
Reuters reports that directive followed a revelation during a presentation made by Eyono Fatai–William, NLNG’s general manager on external relations, presented a Senate committee hearing on the country’s budget plans for 2021 to 2023.
In a financial summary of the company presented to the committee, Faitai-William disclosed the NLNG had paid a dividend of over $18 billion to Nigeria from 2004-2019.
NLNG is a consortium between state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Eni, Total and Royal Dutch Shell. An NLNG spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Senate, according to a statement issued on Thursday, therefore wants the Accountant General to investigate the dividend payments.
The chairman of the committee told Idris to investigate the payments and report back to the Senate in two weeks.
“The accountant general was mandated to investigate among other things if the amount was actually remitted to NNPC, how much was actually remitted to the Federation Account, if there is any deduction by NNPC, how much was deducted and who authorized the deductions,” the Senate said in its statement.
Accountant General Ahmed Idris said it was “difficult to determine with any certainty” the details of the dividend paid to NNPC, according to the Senate statement.
Public officials in Nigeria have history of fraudulent dispensation of national assets and resources.
It is believed that several billions of dollars were misappropriated by the officials in the oil and gas industry where accounting and reporting processes are still largely opaque.
