The continued delay in the reform of the Nigerian Petroleum Industry has resulted in the loss of not less than $20billion in direct investments annually, Nigeria Natural Resource Charter (NNRC) has disclosed.
This was part of the revelation during a webinar conference presented at the NNR Charter in Abuja on Tuesday.
While calling for capacity development in the oil and gas industry, Mr. Tengi George-Ikoli, Project Coordinator of NNRC, revealed that improving the competence of staff through training and providing incentives can safeguard against narrow rent seeking and promote overall organisational effectiveness.
Other speakers at the conference, who called for reforms in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC, argued that the Corporation has maintained the practice of disclosing selective and unaudited monthly operational and financial performance data since 2016.
“Despite the disclosure of information by NNPC in recent times, it is important to examine the implications and unintended consequences of increased information disclosure. Specifically, shining light on some information may leave other issues in darkness.”
“Furthermore, transparency or information disclosure is not an end in itself. It is instrumental for seeking accountability.”
“Too much emphasis on information disclosure is misplaced, especially when the assumption that the availability of information incentivises good behaviour among decision makers fails”, they said.
The speakers also said that information disclosed by the NNPC has to be useful and civil society and the public have to be able to understand and use it.
They also explained that while transparency can point to wrongdoing and identify who should be held accountable; it is redundant in many cases where other accountability infrastructure subverts its impact.
