$49b Oil Fund Not Missing, Only $262m Unremitted - Senate The Senate has said that the controversial $49.8 billion oil revenue was not missing as alleged, but un-remitted funds of $262m which should be remitted to the Federation Account by the Nigeria National Petroleum Cooperation, (NNPC). The Senate made the clarification yesterday, while adopting the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led Finance Committee report on the alleged missing money as claimed by the former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who is now the Emir of Kano. The Senate President, Senator David Mark, who presided over the session commended the committee for presenting a courageous report based on the facts that were presented to it, stressing that the committee was forthright by paying attention to details in the course of their assignment. The committee observed that “there was poor record keeping and nonchalant work attitude by the NNPC by not rendering returns on subsidy claims on monthly basis from January 2012 to date which contributed largely to creation of the problem in hand.” The Upper House which also rejected the Federal Government’s plan to remove the subsidy on the petroleum products, added that government should first embark on sensitisation of the public because of the effects of such abrupt removal. The Senate further mandated its committee on finance to follow up and receive the forensic audit reports from the Auditor General of the Federation and the PriceWaterhouseCoopers, PWC, and also study and report back to the Senate as soon as possible. On a 21-point recommendation of the finance committee, the Senate accepted the subsidy deducted by the NNPC, from January 2012 July 2013 of US$5.254 billion (N813,803 billion) since it was certified by Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, and appropriated by the National Assembly. According to the recommendation, “NNPC should refund and remit to the Federation Account $262 million being expenses it could not satisfactorily defend in respect of Holding Strategic Stock Reserve; Pipeline Maintenance and Management Cost and Capital Expenditure.” It also asked NPDC, a subsidiary of the NNPC, “to remit to the Federation Account $447.8 million being balance of royalty and petroleum profit tax.” Other recommendations include: “The President should prepare and present to the National Assembly supplementary budget to cover the expenditure in the sum of N90.693 billion ($585 million) for PMS subsidy for 2012 and N685.910 billion ($4.430 billion) for kerosene subsidy expended without appropriation by the National Assembly in 2012 and 2013. The committee said NNPC should not pay operational expenditures direct from the Federation funds without appropriation by the National Assembly.
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 09:55:58 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015