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The House of Representatives’ Ad-hoc Committee investigating the pump price of petroleum products on Thursday directed the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to provide details of the N30 billion unremitted crude oil revenue into the Federation Account.
The Committee chaired by Raphael Nnana-Igbokwe (PDP-Imo), also directed Auditor General of the Federation (AGF) to provide report on the N30 billion unremitted crude oil revenue and submit to the Committee for further inquiry.
Nnana-Igbokwe who issued the directive at the ongoing investigation into the pump price of petroleum products between 2013 to 2017, resolved to handover some of the Chief Executives of oil companies to the Police Fraud Unit and Sergeant-at-arms to document their statements.
According to the DPR records for crude oil lifted in February 2017 which showed 2,845,142 barrels transferred to the Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri refineries.
However, the Committee discovered 3,853,647 barrels of crude oil were delivered to the three refineries, leaving excess of 1,008,505 barrels unaccounted for by DPR.
Also in the month of March 2017, DPR records showed that 3,227,556 barrels were supplied to the three refineries while the record showed 2,400,297 barrels documented, showing differential of the 827,259 barrels of crude oil unaccounted for by the agency.
For the month of April 2017, while DPR showed total crude oil lifted worth 2,978,371 barrels lifted, the Committee discovered that total of 4,252,368 barrels were distributed to the three refineries, leaving a differential of 1,273,997 barrels unaccounted for.
While reacting to the discrepancies, Nnana-Igbokwe who frowned at the complacency of the DPR “as watchdog of government” for failing to account for the actual crude oil lifted, hence depriving the three tiers of government the revenue accrued from sale of crude oil.
“That is why we insisted on the record you sent to Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC). We’ve observed specific encroachment into government revenue. Remember we have issue of N30 billion revenue for October which is yet to be accounted for.
“Government will continue to experience shortfall because government can’t assess total revenue accruable due to the shortfall. So it is not about witch-hunt,” Nnana-Igbokwe said.
While ruling, Nnana-Igbokwe noted that there are 32 issues yet to be addressed by DPR, directed the DPR Team leader on Crude, to brief the Committee on the details of the FAAC meeting where the revenue for October 2017 will be shared among the three tiers of government.
The committee also resolved to summon Permanent Secretary of Federal Ministry of Finance to appear before the Committee at the next hearing, to explain the rationale behind the N30 billion unremitted crude oil revenue.
In his response, Idris Abdulrahman, DPR Team lead on Crude, who adopted the document, explained that the N30 billion revenue was for February 2017 adding that some private oil marketers stocked some crude oil in the refineries.
While giving update on the investigation conducted so far, Nnana-Igbokwe disclosed that one of the Managing Directors of the oil marketing companies alleged that $5 million forex was applied for without his consent, hence the rationale behind the resolve of the Committee to invite the Chief Executives of the oil companies.
While responding to the Committee’s inquiry into the allegation bothering on 10,000 metric tons of PMS and payment of N1,573,073,460 paid by Star Synergy Petrol on the 13th June, 2016, Nnana-Igbokwe asked whether someone was using the company’s identity to collect petroleum products.
He also queried the company over the collection of assessing 4,970.06MT of petroleum products on the 15th September, 2013 and collected subsidy claims from Federal Government.
The lawmakers also queried the company for using another company called First Deep Water to assess N5 billion subsidy claims, just as the Committee directed PPMC to provide details on the status of the company.
In his response, Babatunde Babalola, CEO, Star Synergy Petrol who noted that the company has claims from PEF and has been paying its dues admitted that the company has not finish paying due to administrative arrangement with PEF.
He added that the company only lifted five cargoes in 2017 but has not done any transaction since 2012.
In a related development, the Committee also queried Ibeto Petrochemical Industry Limited over the lifting of 4,889.03MT of petroleum products through a tank farm that has been sold to North West company on the 17th January, 2013 and 4,978.02MT on the 26th April, 2013.
To this end, the committee resolved to place the investigation on IBG Energy Network, a subsidiary of Petrochemical on further inquiry over the assessment of subsidy claims which could not be substantiated.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
