Missing Billions: Forensic Audit Orders NNPC To Refund N279.72bn

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company were yesterday indicted by the investigative forensic audit done by PriceWaterHouse Coopers into the allegations of unremitted funds to the Federation Account.
The highlights of the report was released by the Auditor General for the Federation, Mr. Samuel Ukura, in Abuja.
In the report, the accounting firm asked both organisations to refund to the federation account “a minimum of $1.48billion” (about N279,72 billion).
PriceWaterHouse, was last year hired to carry out the exercise following an allegation by the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, that $20billion was not remitted to the Federation Account by the NNPC.
Sanusi, who is now the Emir of Kano, had written a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan that $49billion was not remitted to the Federation Account by the NNPC.
But following the controversy which the letter generated, a committee was set up to reconcile the account.
Sanusi later recanted and said the unremitted fund was $12billion which he later changed to $20billion.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Wednesday deplored the recent increase in attacks on crude oil and gas pipelines, saying that it adversely affected the nation’s economy.
A statement issued in Abuja by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Mr Ohi Alegbe.
Alegbe said the nation lost about 60,000 barrels of crude oil per day to acts of vandalism on its pipeline.
Alegbe said the sudden increase in the activities of saboteurs around the Trans-Forcados Pipeline and the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline in the last six weeks was shocking.
He said that the Escravos-Lagos Gas Pipeline was vandalised with four breaks over the weekend.
“The act had robbed the nation of several billions of naira to the detriment of the national economy. “NNPC loses between 50,000 and 60,000 barrels of crude oil and condensate on a daily basis to pipeline breaks,” he said.
Our correspondent  reports that at 53 dollar per barrel, Nigeria loses about 3.2 million dollars (about N534.3 million) per day to oil theft.
He said that there appeared to be a syndicate behind the economic sabotage.
Alegbe stated that most of the power plants, including those in Calabar, Alaoji, Omoku and Olorunsogo had been connected to gas.
He said that all the efforts of the Federal Government to construct unprecedented massive gas pipeline infrastructure were being sabotaged by pipeline vandals.
He said it was unfortunate that between January and early February 2015 alone, the Trans-Forcados Crude Pipeline was attacked and vandalised four times.
Alegbe said that none of NNPC’s gas pipelines had been able to run two straight days without being brought down.
He said the corporation was exploring a number of options on how to tackle the pipeline vandalism menace.
He said the options ranged from an aggressive community engagement to installation of technological gadgets to stave off the vandals.
Alegbe said that each time a gas pipeline was brought down by the vandals, power supply across the country dropped which adversely affected economic activities across the length and breadth of the nation.
He called for a holistic approach to resolve the pipeline vandalism scourge.
Alegbe said this should include tightening of security and expeditious judicial enforcement, to end the menace.

R-L: General Manager, RSNC, Celestine Ogolo; Editor, Weekend Tide, Goodluck Ukwe, and husband of late staff, Pastor Thankyou Elenwa, during the RSNC management’s condolence visit to late Mrs Diseph Elenwa’s family in Port Harcourt, yesterday.