OrderPaper Advocacy Initiative has commended the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on their collaborative efforts that resulted in the successful remediation of some outstanding issues in the Oil and Gas industry audits.
OrderPaper in a statement signed by its Executive Director, Oke Epia, said the successful resolution of 55 percent of outstanding issues involving the NNPC following bilateral engagements between the national oil company and NEITI is commendable and exemplary.
The organisation described the collaboration that led to the resolution as a noble and novel step towards advancing transparency and accountability in the petroleum industry as championed by NEITI.
The statement said the results achieved by the collaboration validates the advocacy mounted by the civil society community on remediation of audit findings over the years, particularly the novel introduction of technology via the RemTrack mobile application on NEITI oil and gas audits.
The RemTrack app, designed and developed by OrderPaper and unveiled to the public in December 2019, is technology-for-development tool adopted by the Civil Society Steering Committee (CSSC) of NEITI for citizen engagements in the extractives sector, especially tracking of progress made on remediation of the annual audits.
OrderPaper expressed delight that the collaborative efforts eventually led to the resolution of a range of pending financial and process issues and hopes that the engagements between NNPC and NEITI would lead to resolution of more pending issues. The statement said further:
“The uptake in the resolution of pending remedial issues, some of which are legacy in nature, is heartwarming and a demonstration of the appetite for reforms of the NNPC under its current management.
“It also testifies to the unflinching commitment of NEITI to ensure compliance with the EITI standards and continually push the boundaries of transparency and accountability in the extractive industries of Nigeria.
“This development no doubt provides an impetus to advance the public engagement advocacy anchored on the RemTrack application towards achieving the ultimate objective of making extractive resources produce maximum benefits for citizens of Nigeria.”
