Wednesday, 5 February 2014

NNPC cannot account for $20bn, Sanusi insists

 CBN Governor, Mr. Lamido Sanusi

The CBN boss told the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led committee that certain level of reconciliation had been achieved from the meetings the bank had with the NNPC and other relevant agencies since the allegation of the unremitted funds became a public issue.

He said, “The NNPC did a presentation. We had all agreed that $14bn out of the $67bn they shipped came in to the dollar account of the federation.

“We have looked at the Federal Inland Revenue Service numbers and we have confirmed that $16bn paid by the International Oil Companies to the FIRS account was not paid by the NNPC but paid by the IOCs.

“It was the proceeds of the crude lifted in the name of the NNPC but sold on behalf of the FIRS. That $16bn had been confirmed by the FIRS and accepted. There is the $1.6bn that the Department of Petroleum Resources also received from the IOCs, which is part of that crude and which the CBN has accepted.

“We have provided evidence in the naira crude account that out of the $28bn domestic crude shipped by the NNPC, it had repatriated $16bn. Out of the $67bn that has accrued to the NNPC account, we have accounted for $47bn.

“That is, out of the $67bn that the NNPC shipped, $47bn had been repatriated to the CBN. What we are talking about is the balance of $20bn and what explanations had been given.”

Sanusi told the committee that the NNPC had said some of the proceeds from the crude sale did not belong to the Federation Account, but noted that it was established during the reconciliation meetings that some of the crude shipped by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company was from oil wells belonging to the federation.

He also accused the NNPC of transferring revenues that should go to the Federation Account for remittance.

 But the Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mr. Andrew Yakubu, told journalists after the meeting that the corporation was still reconciling its accounts and that it was currently at the point of conclusion of the reconciliation process with the various agencies.

Culled from Punch

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