Mr. Mele Kyari, Group Managing Director of the Nigerian Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has been ordered to present himself before the House of Representatives over the non-remittance of revenue accrued from sales of crude oil.
Mr. Kyari, and Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), have both been accused over non-payment of N3.235 trillion ($19.253 billion) revenue gotten from the sales of domestic crude oil back in 2014.
Mr. Wole Oke, Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts, issued the directive of the summon during an investigative hearing on the audit queries issued by the Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF).
The summon came days after Kyari’s decline of the invitation over the alleged illegal withdrawal of $20.301 billion from the account of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) dividends.
Contained in the query, it was revealed that, ‘examination of NNPC mandates to CBN on domestic crude oil sales and reconciliation statement of the technical committee of Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting held in January 2014, a total sum of N3,234,577,666,791.35 was not remitted to the federation account by NNPC within the period under review.’
The AuGF also uncovered that, ‘The cost estimated for crude and product losses was N55,964,682,158.99 which is about 50 per cent 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.’
He added that, ‘Over 31 percent (N826,506,271,231.26 divided by N2,636,390,514,777.18, multiply by 100 percent) of the realized crude sales for the year were earmarked as other expenses, apart from direct cost of productions stated in NNPC reports for 2014. The breakdown of other expenses was not provided for audit.’
‘From the above analysis, it means that the federation account is losing 31 percent (N826,506,271,231.26) being additional estimated cost from the total amount that should have accrued to the account.’
‘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 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 at source, thereby resulting to net amount withheld figure of N2,408,041,395,560.33.’
‘All these deductions at source by NNPC were not approved by Federal Allocation Accounts Committee (FAAC).’
It can be recounted that the NNPC did not give an explanation when a similar issue was raised in 2012; over the non-remittance of revenue.
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Mr. Mele Kyari was earlier asked to ‘provide names of the contractors, location, and amount paid to each for the pipeline maintenance for verification.’
Having reviewed the response of the Accountant General, the Reps had summoned the NNPC and CBN to make an appearance, as the Accountant General could not provide sufficient evidence on the audit query of such depth.
Nike Omosanya
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