The last may not have been heard about the alleged unremitted oil revenue by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) into the Federation Account as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi CON, has said that of the $67 billion worth of crude shipped by the NNPC between January 2012 and July 2013, only $47 billion was remitted to the Federation Account.
But the NNPC has dismissed the allegation saying this was not the first time the CBN Governor had made wild allegations about the NNPC and had come to admit his mistake.
Sanusi made the revelation yesterday, before the Senate Committee on Finance investigating the alleged unremitted oil revenue by the NNPC into the Federation Account.
He stated that it was up to the NNPC, given all issues raised, to produce the proof that the $20 billion unremitted did not belong to the Federation or was legally and constitutionally spent.
Not much success has been made on the promised reconciliation exercise, as none of the agencies concerned could come up with any tangible result from the reconciliation exercise, which commenced before the last Christmas holidays.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee, Senator, Mohammed Ahmed Makarfi, frowned at the apparent delay being exhibited by various agencies involved and summoned all the parties concerned to appear unfailingly before the Senate Committee hearing on yesterday.
It would be recalled that a letter meant to alert President Goodluck Jonathan on the these alleged irregularities from the CBN Governor was allegedly leaked to the public last December and it generated a lot of public debate.
The governor further accused NNPC of serious infractions in the handling of kerosene subsidy. He argued: “Based on National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data, kerosene is not a subsidized product, and, therefore, the so-called subsidy is rent generated for the benefit of those in kerosene business”.
According to him, the Federation Account was made to lose $100 million every month to the subsidy racket. He, thereby, urged the committee to insist that NNPC provide evidence of Presidential authorization to buy kerosene at N150 per litre and to sell same at N40 per litre, whereas the product sells at between N170 – N220 per litre in the open market.
On the NNPC’s claims of paying subsidy on behalf of government, he said the claims were not credible and indeed contradicted by the fact the NNPC had consistently rendered returns to the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) indicating that it made no deductions for subsidy.
He identified NNPC’s unverified claims for subsidy and unilateral deductions from the Federation Account as a major source of revenues from the system and urged the Committee to order a thorough independent investigation into the activities of NNPC.
Meanwhile, the NNPC has dismissed the allegation saying this was not the first time the CBN Governor had made wild allegations about the NNPC and had come to admit his mistake.
Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Engr. Andrew Yakubu, who reacted to Sanusi’s allegation, stated that the CBN Governor’s claim of the existence of an unremitted $20 billion was far from the reality on ground, and that this would be proven when investigations are concluded.
Yakubu expressed surprise that even after extensive clarification on the matter, the CBN Governor was still confusing the role of NPDC as part of NNPC’s upstream operations.
He faulted Sanusi’s claim that NPDC’s gross earnings ought to be remitted to the Federation Accounts explaining that the company is a limited liability outfit registered under Company and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) to do business.
He said: “Let me make this point clear, CBN is a banking outfit, not a petroleum outfit. It is therefore understandable why they keep making unsubstantiated claims, which a little understanding of the technicalities of the oil industry would have saved them from making. CBN is not an auditing outfit.
“But what it is doing is now auditing. We have no problem with auditing, but let the professionals, the certified bodies and agencies that are charged with this responsibility of auditing, to do their work,” he stressed.
The NNPC boss explained that the issues raised by Sanusi were not fresh at all and would be eventually reconciled by the Inter Agency Committee established to settle the $49.8 billion saga.
He added: “Our position remains the same and we remain open to all stakeholders. These are issues that are currently before the reconciliation committee and before now, it has been a subject of monthly verification before Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) and other stakeholders.”
Yakubu reiterated what the Director-General of Budget had said at the hearing that a lot of progress had been made in the reconciliation of the $10.8 billion expressing hope that by the time the committee meets next week, the final report would be ready, and NNPC would be vindicated.