The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, on Friday, said it had engaged forensic experts to recover the funds of its members trapped in the now-defunct Department of Petroleum Resources, Petroleum Equalisation Fund Management Board and Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resource, Chief Timipre Sylva, had announced on Monday that the DPR, PEF and PPPRA had been officially scrapped.
This followed the inauguration of the Nigerian Petroleum Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority and the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission, the new agencies that would regulate the country’s oil and gas industry.
The National President of IPMAN, Chinedu Okoronkwo, said in a statement on Sunday that its members were always at the receiving end whenever a change of policy in the petroleum industry occurred.
He said with the scrapping of the three agencies by the Federal Government, IPMAN members’ funds running into tens of billions of dollars had been trapped.
He stressed the need for urgent reconciliation of the huge sum of money to avert a major crisis in the sector.
“In view of our past experiences, by virtue of the enormous amount of money being owed by the Federal Government vis-a-vis DPR, PEFMB and PPPRA, IPMAN has engaged the services of Mauritz Walton Nig. Ltd, to reconcile and recover the product differential between IPMAN and Federal Government”, Okoronkwo said.
He described Mauritz Walton Nigeria as ‘a forensic expert and globally acclaimed financial consultant’.
The Group Executive Officer and Managing Director, Mauritz Walton Nigeria, Dr Maurice Ibe, was quoted as saying he would be bringing his expertise in forensic financial consultancy to bear on the assignment.
Ibe said the consultancy firm would be reviewing all information, records, invoices and documentation from IPMAN members with a view to determining the amount owed and what is recoverable.
