By Fola James
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN Godwin Emefiele has been summoned by the House of Representatives, to explain the non-remittance of over N3 trillion into the federation account, following a query by the Auditor General of the Federation to that effect.
The sum was N9, 923,015,028 revenue from solid mineral and N3,234,577,666,791.35 crude oil sale in 2014 by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC which has not been accounted for by the apex bank, the Auditor General stated in its presentation to the House Committee on Public Accounts investigative panel on CBN and NNPC.
The Nation reported that the committee has also summoned the Group Managing Director, GMD NNPC Melee Kyari over the issue.
According to AuGF the “examination of NNPC mandates to CBN on Domestic Crude Oil Sales and Reconciliation Statement of Technical Committee of Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting held in January, 2015, a total sum of N3,234,577,666,791.35 was not remitted to the Federation Account by NNPC within the period under review.”
It said further that the “cost estimated for crude and product losses was N55,964,682,158.99 which is about 50% of pipeline management cost of N110,402,541,010.88. Names of contractors, location and amount paid to each for the pipeline Maintenance were not sighted for audit verification.
“Over 31% (N826,506,271,231.26 divided by N2,636,390,514,777.18 multiply by 100%) of the realized crude sales for the year were earmarked as other expenses apart from direct cost of productions stated in NNPC reports for the year 2014. The breakdown of other expenses was not provided for audit.
“From the above analysis, it means that the Federation Account is losing 31% (N826, 506,271,231.26) being additional estimated cost from the total amount that should have accrue to Federation Account.”
The AuGF accused the NNPC of spending without recourse to the Federation Account Allocation Committee, FAAC, adding that the Accountant General of the Federation should demand accountability from the NNPC on various crude oil sales.
It said “From the total revenue of N3,234,577,666,791.35 as at 14th January, 2015 payable to the Federation Account by NNPC during the year, the Corporation deducted the sum of N826,506,271,231.26) i.e. N660,139,048,061.39, N55,964,682,158.99 and N110,402,541,010.88 for subsidy estimate, crude and product losses and pipeline management cost respectively at source resulting to net amount withheld figure of N2,408,041,395,560.33 shown in the table to the Federation Account.”
The AuGF also demand from the NNPC Group Managing Director to provide details of contracts to all its contractors for proper verification and transparency, insisting that the NNPC has violated the law which stipulated that all revenue must be paid into the federation account..
The Wole Oke-led Committee, has therefore, asked the NNPC GMD to explain the following: total sum of N248,268,291,460.87 subsidy not budgeted for in the 2014 Appropriation Act; N199,705,152,175.52 un-reconciled items in the domestic excess crude oil account since 2012 to 2014; N392, 261,423,894.77 variance in the proceeds made on crude oil which was almost eroded by JVC operational cost to the extent of realizing 11.51%, 20.21% and 15.35% in the month of January, July and September, 2014, which did not reflect prudence as a profit.
