NOCAL president McClain has argued that all funds collected were accounted for
The National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL) has acknowledged discrepancies indicated in the recently-released audit report by the Extractive Industry Transparency Industry for Liberia (LEITI) with regards to unreconciled payments by companies in the oil sector to government agencies during the financial year July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011.
It however argued that it was the University of Liberia (UL) Administration that mistakenly submitted the wrong financial report to Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI), not NOCAL authority. NOCAL’s president and chief executive officer (CEO) Dr. Randolph McClain yesterday told reporters in Monrovia that UL Authority reported US$620,000 for the reporting period instead of US$850,000 received by them for the fiscal period. He said the US$620,000 reported was not for the reporting period.
The UL has officially acknowledged the discrepancy and apologized to NOCAL for the embarrassment. The University Administration confirmed receiving US$850,000 from NOCAL. “Funds from all of the sectors are in fact accounted for,” he said. According to Dr. McClain, the LEITI audit report is misleading.
The Extractive Industry Transparency Industry for Liberia (LEITI) recently released its 4th report covering the financial year July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011. Analyzing total payment and differences per sector, LEITI found that within the oil sector, companies paid US$49,911,073.86 but US$49,681,073.86 was paid into government’s coffers. A difference of US$230,000 remains unaccounted for in the oil sector, reported by companies as paid to the government but which government agencies did not report receiving, the report reveals.
Also, a difference of US$100,000 arose because, while Liberia’s National Oil Company (NOCAL) recorded a receipt of US$300,000 from African Petroleum, the Ministry of Finance reported that it had received only US$200,000 from NOCAL, according to LEITI report.
But Dr. McClain argued that after reconciling all of the payments, the variance that was mistakenly not recorded is US$230,000; not US$330,000 as it was reported in the media. “With the total amount, there can be no other difference. Therefore, only US$230,000 is in question, not US$330,000, as reported,” he said. The NOCAL CEO explained that the reason for the discrepancy of US$230,000 in the report is that the UL Administration received US$850,000 from NOCAL in July, 2011, but mistakenly reported that it received US$620,000, which it had received for the previous reporting period 2009/2010.
The UL Administration, in a May 31, 2013 letter addressed to the comptroller of NOCAL, acknowledged the mistake and confirmed that the UL did receive the amount of US$850,000 from NOCAL in support of its Science College, specifically, the Mining Program. “This amount was received in December, 2011 and represents the third trench of funding from NOCAL to the University of Liberia for fiscal period July, 2010 to June, 2011,” the letter signed by UL comptroller Mr. Sehmah R. Jallah, noted.
“The mistake came from individuals putting in misleading figures. Everyone can make mistake, but what we look for is the receipt of payments, Dr. McClain noted. He argued that the mistake did not take place at NOCAL, but the reporting entity, which happened to be the University of Liberia. NOCAL has since requested that the LEITI collaborates with the UL to corroborate the figures and put out the correct information.
At the same time, the NOCAL CEO has announced a periodic dialogue with the media that would it to regularly inform the public about activities of the entity.
According to Dr. McClain, the quarterly dialogue with the media will help NOCAL address existing information gap between the Liberian people and NOCAL about the oil sector. “The need for the availability of information to the people about the oil sector is at the core of this dialogue. We are convinced that the consistent information to our people will help us defeat public cynicism for public confidence,” he said. He observed that the dialogue will help promote NOCAL’s inclusiveness amidst growing public sentiment about the oil sector.
George D. Kennedy contributed to this report
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