DPR denies revenue report on 26 oil firms

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), has denied the 2014 Audit Report on Federal Government agencies, by office of the Auditor-General, which indicted it of financial negligence in the collection of revenues from 26 oil companies operating in Nigeria.

The amount DPR reportedly failed to collect on behalf of government was put at $743,648,242.45 million (about N148.7 billion), even after the agency had been directed to do so.

The indictment is contained in highlights of the report, which the Auditor-General of the Federation Samuel Ukura, submitted to the National Assembly from which The Guardian wrote the story.

However DPR in a rejoinder to The Guardian following the published story claimed that the Auditor-General was wrong in his indictment of the agency, because it even exceeded the revenue target set for it by the Federal Government.

DPR Manager, Public Affairs, Paul Osu, said the agency insisted that the report was erroneous, even though the statement was silent on the vexed issue of revenue collection from the affected 26 oil firms.

The rejoinder read in part: “Our attention has been drawn to a front page publication in the Guardian of Monday April 1, 2016, captioned: “How MDAs, Foreign Missions Defrauded Govt. of Over N4OOb” with a sub-caption “DPR Yet to Account for N148.7b Revenue from 26 Firms” which your reporter ostensibly pegged on the 2014 Report of the Auditor-General of the Federation.