The Senate on Friday scolded officials of the Department of Petroleum Resources for remitting only N44.5bn out of the N2.4tn it generated in 2019 into the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

The joint Senate committee on Finance and National Planning, displeased by the low remittance, ordered that the agency must reappear before it unfailingly on Tuesday and must be led by its Director, Sarki Auwalu, who was absent during the interactive session organised by the committee.

The Chairman of the joint panel, Senator Solomon Adeola, had demanded for records of the agency’s internally generated revenues in 2019 and projections for 2021.

The committee members expressed shock when DPR’s Head of Planning, Mr Johnson Ajewole, said a total of N2.4tn was generated by the DPR in 2019 but only N44.5bn was remitted into the CRF. They described the submission as unacceptable.

Efforts by the agency’s Head of Finance and Accounts, Mrs Lilian Ufondu, to explain the wide margin further angered the lawmakers.

She explained that out of the N2.4tn generated in 2019, N88bn was removed as four per cent cost of collection. She also said N5.72bn was remitted while the balance was used for overhead.

Further questions directed at her by the Chairman and members on what happened to the over N2tn balance, were deemed to be unsatisfactory by the lawmakers as she only mentioned overhead and operational costs without specific figures tied to them.

She however said that as of July 2020, DPR had generated N1.13tn while it projected N3.4tn as revenues generation for 2021, noting that N139bn would be deducted as four per cent collection fee.