A former President of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), Dr Samuel Nzekwe has advised the Federal Government to deal resolutely with
cases of illegal bunkering in the oil-rich Niger-Delta region.
.
Nzekwe told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos, at the weekend, that government should deal decisively with oil theft if it “wants the economy to move forward.”
He was speaking in reaction to the revelations by some government officials last week that between 180,000 and 200,000 barrels of crude oil were stolen daily.
Such act was said to be costing the nation a loss of more than N1.2 trillion yearly.
According to
Nzekwe, the proceeds from illegal bunkering that go into individual
pockets are lamentable.
“If few
citizens can steal oil worth about N1.2 trillion annually, almost a nation’s
budget, you can imagine the impact on the
nation’s economy,” he said.
He advised
that government should prosecute such fraudulent people to serve as a deterrent
to others.
Nzekwe
reasoned that since the major earnings were through crude oil sales, government
should plug all loopholes.
The former
ANAN chief appealed to government to look into the activities of the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to ensure that the organisation conformed
with due process and the law establishing it.
Also, he said that government should not use the Excess Crude Account (ECA) for recurrent
expenditures, except for capital expenditures.
“Capital expenditures would create employment, create enabling environment for the real
sector including agriculture to thrive. Then see
“ECA should not be used for recurrent expenditures, as it would affect the economy by
creating inflation and stagnating the economy,” the former ANAN president said.
He suggested
that if we were able to feed ourselves through agriculture, we would have gone
a long way and not importing rice from Thailand.
Nzekwe
pleaded with the government to start implementing the budget by releasing funds
on time to the ministries, departments and agencies to save the economy from
undue pressure.
“Government
is every country is the biggest spender and most people who do jobs for government
want to collect their money,” the accountant said.
He said that
when there are payment delays, it would directly heat up the economy.
Source: NAN
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