Abuja — President Olusegun Obasanjo has admonished chief executives of oil companies not to see the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) as an inquisition or a judicial enquiry.

He said they should rather take the process as part of the reform agenda of his administration to engender transparency, openness and accountability in the sector.

Obasanjo was speaking at a meeting with the NEITI and heads of the oil companies operating in the country at the State House yesterday.

He said that the Federal Government decided on its own to form NEITI to be part of reforms it had embarked upon, adding that it was not forced on the country.

"NEITI is a very important aspect of our reform, and like the others, we are doing it because we believe it is good for us. It is in our best interest to do it and we can confidently tell the world that everything is accounted for," he said.

While appreciating the fact that the beginning might not be easy, however, Obasanjo stated that the companies in the extractive industry should also be committed to transparency.

He said that companies in the extractive industries would have a better bargain because "it will be to your benefit in the international community."

The President also challenged all companies that had not submitted required templates to do so, to enable the government meet its commitment for a March 31, 2006 global report.

Speaking earlier, the Minister of Solid Minerals and Chairperson of the NEITI, Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili, said that progress was being made with respect to the comprehensive NEITI audits.

She added that NEITI had called for Expression of Interest (EOI) from interested auditors, sent out Request for Proposal (RFP) solicitation documents to the shortlisted firms on January 31, 2005 and then the National Stakeholders Working Group (NSWG) went on to select the Hart Group to do the financial, process and physical audits of Nigeria's oil and gas industry on March 15, 2005.

Ezekwesili also recalled that on March 30, 2005, NEITI invited the chief executives of all oil producing companies in Nigeria to the State House where Obasanjo reiterated that the audit by NEITI was one of the transparency programmes of his administration.

According to details, the response by oil companies to the NEITI audit programme, which was made available to THISDAY yesterday, the NEITI said till date, it was experiencing difficulties in assessing the general ledger and trial balance for Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) assessment review. The agency also stated that it was experiencing difficulties in obtaining complete assess to the general ledger in order to validate PPT assessment.

"There are promises that this will change but valuable time is being lost. Information on royalties and licenses is awaited," it added.

Furthermore, while the auditors had set a March 8, deadline for the submission of information on Well Data, it stated that "a few companies have forwarded the data to us."

"A committee has been set up to work on Physical/Financial Volumes Reconciliation from 1- 3 March, 2006. The success of the work of this committee will determine whether existing timeline can be met or not," said NEITI.