The Federation Accounts Allocation Committee’s (FAAC) post-mortem
sub-committee has indicted the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC) of gross failure to remit N764.2 billion into the federation
account since President Muhammadu Buhari took over on May 29, 2015.
According to a report released weekend, which puts the total debt
being owed the federation account at N5 trillion over the last five
years (January 2011 and April 2016), NNPC failed to remit N689.1 billion
into the federation account from the N1.6 trillion it made from selling
157,889,648 barrel of crude oil.
It only remitted N987.5 billion into the federation covering January and December 2015, the report noted.
It noted that the corporation restarted substantial default in remittance from May 2015.
President Buhari doubles as the minister of petroleum and until
recently had Ibe Kachikwu also doubling as the minister of state for
petroleum and Group Managing Director of NNPC.
Kachikwu currently sits as the chairman of the board of the
corporation, while both the president and Kachikwu still retain their
positions as ministers in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
The FAAC’s report said NNPC was allocated 12, 074,800 barrels of crude in January 2016 at the cost of N112.2 billion.
The corporation made a net payment of N85 billion, leaving an outstanding of N27.2 billion.
The same method of incomplete remittance continued in February 2016
when the corporation got 11,321,080 barrels of crude valued at N93.3
billion. It succeeded in making payment of N75.6 billion while holding
on to N17.6 billion, the report stated.
Then in March 2016, the report said NNPC got 13,037,358 barrels of
crude amounting to N87 billion, noting that only N67 billion was paid
leaving N20 billion with the corporation.
In April 2016, NNPC got 11,302,861 barrels of crude amounting to
N62.8 billion. It paid N52.5 billion, leaving an outstanding balance of
N10.3 billion.
However, the report covering 2011 to 2014 said NNPC failed to remit
N844.9 billion of the N2.7 trillion it made from being allocated
170,632,246 barrels of crude oil between January and December 2011. It,
however, paid N1.8 trillion into the federation account.
Between January and December 2012, the corporation again failed to
pay N1.1 trillion into the federation account out of the N2.5 trillion
it made from being allocated 160,173,448 barrels of crude oil. It only
paid N1.6 trillion into federation account, it noted.
Between January and December of 2013 and 2014, respectively, NNPC
failed to remit N1.1 trillion each into the federation account. In 2013,
NNPC got 156,192,175 barrels of crude oil valued at N2.6 trillion and
made payment of N1.5 trillion while in 2014 it was allocated crude
volume of 158,206,819 barrels worth N2.6 trillion where it paid in N1.4
trillion into the federation account.
Making strong contribution to the reports, a member of the committee
said, “Members may also recall that the sub-committee had been carrying
forward accounts withheld by the NNPC from domestic crude sales since
2011. The NNPC had explained over time that the outstanding amounts of
money include subsidy claims, pipeline maintenance, and pipeline crude
and product losses.
“The sub-committee had consistently insisted that the NNPC should
provide details of how much claims were expended as necessary condition
for it to accept such claims, but the NNPC till date is yet to come up
with such details.”
“The NNPC had also insisted that the outcome of the forensic audit on
the NNPC would reveal if the corporation owed the federation or vice
versa. However, the just-concluded forensic audit covered a period up to
December 2010 while the outstanding period covered by the subcommittee
is from January 2011 to April 2016”, he added.
This indeed might throw up further controversy as this latest
indictment runs contrary to what both the Office of the Auditor-General
of the Federation (OAGF) and the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and
Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) said in March.
According to the OAGF’s report, NNPC failed to remit N3.2 trillion
between 2011 and 2015 while RMAFC few days later put the figure at N3.2
trillion.
Justifying how the figure was arrived at, Mr. Ibrahim Mohammed,
RMAFC’s spokesman, had said the figure of N3.2 trillion was from the
2014 annual audit report obtained from the Federation Accounts
Allocation Committee’s Technical Sub-Committee on Domestic Crude Oil
Sales and Reconciliation Statement as contained in the NNPC’s mandate to
the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Mr. Mohammed had said, “Available records at the commission’s
disposal indicate that between January 2011 and December 2015, the total
indebtedness of the NNPC to the Federation Account was N4.9 trillion, a
figure that included the NNPC’s claims for subsidy on petroleum
products, crude and product losses, strategic reserves and pipeline
maintenance cost.”
All attempts to speak with Mohammed failed.
Similarly, former governor of the CBN now Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido
Sanusi, had accused the
corporation of failure to remit $49 billion
into the federation account. While a joint assessment report involving
the then Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; ex-Minister of
Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke; the CBN and other stakeholders
resolved the debts being owed the federation account to about $10
billion, which the then CBN governor, a participant at the meeting
accepted.
Yet, NNPC through its Chief Financial Officer, Isiaka Abdulrazaq,
said, “The declaration by the AuGF (Auditor General of the Federation)
may have been as a result of a misunderstanding of how revenues from
crude oil and gas sales are remitted into the federation account.”
“NNPC wishes to state in strong terms that the AuGF’s declaration is
erroneous,” he said, adding that the auditor-general had failed to
account for costs including a fuel subsidy, pipeline vandalism and
maintenance.
“Consequently, the figure owed to the federation account as at
January 2015 Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting
report was N326,142,137,205.79 ($1.64 billion) and not the N3.23
trillion alleged by the AuGF,” he said.
He faulted the report for not including NNPC’s claim of N1.374 trillion as at 2009 against the federation.
All the stakeholders in FAAC meeting are familiar with the N326.14 billion and it is already in the public domain since then.
Attempts to speak with Olawunmi Ogunmosunle, the chief press
secretary, in the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation in
Abuja, failed as she did not respond to mails sent to her as at the time
of filing in this report.
Read More
0 Comments
I hope you enjoyed this story? So please, drop your comment below. Remember that at the end of the year, most active members receives cash rewards.
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the comment writers alone and does not reflect or represent the views of MOTIVEPRESS