An NGO, Publish What You Pay, has called on the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) to promote the extractive industry’s efficiency by promptly releasing audited reports of the industries.

Mrs Faith Nwadishi, the Chairperson of the NGO, made the call in Abuja during an advocacy visit to NEITI.

“We will like to know what is delaying the release of the 2006-2008 audit reports of the extractive sector. We are now in 2011 and we are still talking about the report for 2008,” she said. She said that her organisation had been following the activities of NEITI and other anti-corruption agencies with keen interest, with a view to ensuring accountability and efficiency in the extractive industry.

Nwadishi, however, noted that NETI had not been forwarding its quarterly and annual reports to the National Assembly, as stipulated in the 2007 NEITI Act

She urged NEITI to take advantage of the Freedom of Information Act to ensure improved transparency in the sector, while calling for the quick passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) in the interest of the sector. Nwadishi pledged her group’s support for NEITI in efforts aimed at ensuring that the revenues generated from the country’s natural resources by companies and government were used to enhance the citizens’ wellbeing.

Dr Ogbonnaya Orji, NEITI’s Director of Communications, who represented the Executive Secretary of the agency, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, thanked the NGO for its support for NEITI’s activities. He said that NEITI in February released the first part of the audit report, covering financial flows, saying that the full report was now ready for presentation to the Federal Executive Council.

Orji said that NEITI was working hard to release all the backlog of audit reports, adding that the procurement process for the 2009-2011 audits had begun and would culminate in a full audit report by 2012. He said that NEITI had sent its quarterly report to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, pledging that the report would also be sent to the National Assembly.

He, however, stressed the need to fast-track efforts to automate the audit report process, adding that NEITI would also organise more capacity building activities for civil society organisations (CSOs) in the area of analysing and interpreting its reports. Orji, who said that NEITI would soon start the audit of the solid minerals sector, called for the speedy passage of the PIB to ensure the growth of the sector He pledged to continue working with CSOs and other stakeholders in efforts to evolve a transparent and efficient extractive sector.