FRC Decries NNPC’s Non-Submission Of Audited Accounts

The Commissioner, Policy and Standard at the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), Dr Sylvester  Mordi has expressed  displeasure with the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) over its  non-submission of audited accounts.
Mordi who spoke in an interview  said it was unimaginable that the NNPC  which operated  in a lucrative sector could claims  to be  making losses and as such was not returning operating surpluses.
According to him, “NNPC is still on the hook with the  commission and the National Assembly. You see NNPCc makes  losses from year to year, that’s what they claim.
“Oil and gas, they are gold, so why  should they be making losses? Sale of oil is a different thing from this concept  of operating surplus. NNPC has a budget for paying for its own operation  and we are saying that after   praying for their operation, they  should save money and from that money they should pay 80 per cent as operating  surplus. We asked NNPC, give us your audited account, till date we have no sighted one; we  say  give us your audited  account and domestic  report”.
He explained that domestic  report was a report given by an external auditor  telling you to tidy up your house to avoid public show.
Mordi added that the FRC  Act, makes it mandatory for all MDAs  to pay  80 per cent of their net profit as operating surplus and retain 20  per cent.
“It is not arbitrary,  then when you look at them, they say they are not making profit and so on but you  look at the accounts, you see over, invoicing, over-pricing.
They  can say this year they paid N100 million for newspapers and next year N20 million, the following year will be N30 million but they are reading the same  newspaper.
All  done to cheat  but  we say no. Then they resort to all sorts  of creative accounting to reduce what should go to government. It is not only NNPC”, Mordi said.
It will be recalled that the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr. Andrew Yakubu recently claimed  that operational losses  and harsh operating environment hindered the declaration of any surplus over the years.
He said pipeline vandalism, oil theft and the fact that the NNPC bought  crude at international rate and sold  products at  regulated prices were some of  the challenges contributing to the  operational losses incurred  by the corporation.