Missing $20bn: Senate Indicts NNPC …Orders Remittance of $480m

Member of House of Representatives, Hon Dakuku Peterside (right), conferring with the Secretary to Rivers State Government, Mr George Feyii (middle) and Commissioner for Social Welfare and Rehabilitation, Hon Joe Philip Poroma, at the 2014 inter-denominational church service to mark Children’s Day in Port Harcourt, last Tuesday.

Reports of the Senate committee on Finance which probed the alleged missing $20 billion oil revenue submitted Wednesday to the senate, has indicted the Nigeria National Petroleum Co-operation (NNPC) of lack of accountability .
The Corporation according to the report has not been able to give a proper account of a $480,069,354.02 expenditure.
Consequent upon this, the Senate directed NNPC to refund to the federation account, the sums of $480,069,354.02, which include $262 million and $218, 069,354.32, being the money it spent on expenses it could not account for and the outstanding amount from gross lifting under the third party financing respectively.
Also recommended by the committee is the discontinuation of the Subsidy Regime, while the Senate leadership should expedite actions to pass the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) which has been pending in the National Assembly.
The committee led by Ahmed Makarfi, also directed President Goodluck Jonathan to prepare and forward to the National Assembly, a supplementary budget to cover the over expenditure in the sum of N90.693 billion for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) subsidy 2012 and the sum of N685.910 billion for kerosene subsidy expended without appropriation by the National Assembly in 2012 and 2013.
Part of the recommendations by the committee was that the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) should remit to the federation account the sum of $447,817,884 being balance of royalty and petroleum profit tax.
Moreover, the senate condemned the decision of NNPC to continue transfer of federation’s OMLs to NPDC who usually transfer same to third parties with lots of tax and revenue concessions, saying this deprives the federation of vital income.
The committee also recommended that senate bars NNPC from paying their operational expenditures direct from federation fund without appropriation by the National Assembly, even as it said the NNPC should strictly adhere to international best practices in keeping records.
“All such transactions should be conducted in a transparent and competitive manner and devoid of revenue concessions”, the committee recommended.
The Senate is expected to consider the committee report in no distant time.

Nneka Amaechi-Nnadi