Uyo — Public officers and oil companies indicted in past audit reports of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) which identified potential revenue loss of N1.3trillion due to under-assessment, would be sanctioned, chairman of the National Working Group of NEITI Mr. Ledium Mitee has said.

Mitee gave the indication yesterday while addressing a press conference at the end of the Special Retreat for members of the board held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

He said NEITI would invoke relevant sanctions under section 16 of the NEITI Acts against any company found to have given false information to its auditors, leading to the revenue loss to the federation accounts.

"NEITI can no longer sit down and watch and allow these recoverable funds in the hands of the companies at the time the federal government is searching for funds to finance the deficits in the annual budget," he said.

He disclosed that the organisation has commenced the process of identifying officers who were directly involved in the shady deals, leading to under-payments and under assessment and avoidable leakages in the system.