The Adhoc Committee investigating the $17 billion stolen crude oil and Liquified Natural Gas to foreign destination, on Monday uncovered the sum $15 billion unremitted revenue into Federation Account.
According to the two separate reports submitted by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to the Adhoc Committee chaired by Abdulrazak Namdas (APC-Adamawa), there were revenue shortfall of $4.270 billion in 2011; $5.548 billion in 2012; over $2 billion in 2013 and $2.8 billion in 2014 respectively.
The differentials emanated from the total yearly record of total oil lifted and monthly total oil lifted by the oil companies from Niheria’s oil terminals.
The alleged missing fund were contained in the two separate documents submitted by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to the Committee.
While responding to questions from members of the Adhoc Committee, Rabiu Bello, NNPC’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) admitted that there were discripancies in the documents before the Adhoc Committee.
He explained that the Corporation’s accounts are audited by External Auditor, office of the Auditor General of the Federation (AGF) and Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI).
In his earlier presentation, Jack Ukitetu, CBN Director who represented the CBN Governor, explained that the Accountant General of the Federation approves and determines the money accrued into the Excess Crude Account.
Ukitetu who explained that before 2006, the CBN collected the money on behalf of government’s agencies and remit into the Federal Reserve Account in New York and charged 0.25 percent, however noted that after 2006, the oil companies pay directly what is due to the government.
The CBN representative who disclosed that the crude oil account is maintained by JP Morgan, however admitted that in making the transfers, the money could be misdirected to another account by the financial institutions.
He added that the apex bank has no Statutory power of oversight to demand for details of the transactions made by NNPC.
On commissions being collected by the apex bank, the CBN representative told the lawmakers that the CBN collects 0.25 percent via forex allocation and does not charge FG one kobo as its deduction are made from central sales.
He assured the Committee that all the 13 agencies at the oil terminals will have records of the transactions/liftings carried out within the period under review.
Meanwhile in his presentation, Waziri Adio, NEITI Executive Secretary who accused NNPC and CBN of misleading the Adhoc Committee pleaded to withdraw the earlier documents submitted.
He however pledged to submit “more damaging documents” on the alleged crude oil theft to the Adhoc Committee on Wednesday, 7th June, 2017, that will help in unearthing the unremitted revenue accrued from oil and gas but not remitted.
Speaking earlier, Abdulrazak Namdas, chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee threatened that the Ad-hoc Committee will not hesitate to submit its report to the House without the inputs of major Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) which fail to honour the invitation of the committee.
Namdas who quoted from the report of the NNPC observed that out of total sum of $42.73 billion crude oil receipt, $35.2 billion went into the Cash Call and Excess Crude Accounts while $7.52 billion was shared among the three tiers of government for the year under review.
To this end, the Adhoc Committee mandated the apex bank and NNPC to submit the audited report of the oil and gas account showing the remitted funds into the Federation Account between 2011 and 2014.
The Corporation was also mandated to submit Bill of Laden relating to the 974,721 barrels of crude oil lifted on 20th October 2011; 961,963 barrels lifted on the 10th October 2011; 974,935 barrels of crude oil lifted on the 9th July 2011 as well as 974,953 barrels of crude oil lifted on the 18th July 2011 but were not declared.
The lawmakers also requested for report of the reconciliation conducted by NNPC and Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as well as the list of oil off-takers for 2013 and 2014.
Similarly, the Corporation is expected to provide details of the companies that paid oil tax between 2011 and 2014, as well as the Letter of Credits (LCs) of all the monies paid into the Federation Account within the period under review.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
