Barely a week after the dispute between the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation, NNPC and the Auditor General of the Federation, Samuel
Ukura, over alleged unremitted N3.235 trillion oil revenue to the Federation
Account in 2014, the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission,
RMAFC, on Monday confirmed that total unremitted revenue could be as high as
N4.9 trillion.
The Commission said through its spokesperson, Ibrahim
Mohammed, that the N3.235 trillion reported by the Auditor General of the
Federarion as unremited revenue by NNPC was from the 2014 Annual Audit Report
obtained from the Federation Account Allocation Committee, FAAC Technical
Sub-Committee records on domestic crude oil sales and reconciliation statement
in the NNPC’s mandate to the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
Mr. Mohammed said, however, that available records at the
Commission’s disposal revealed that between January 2011 and December 2015,
NNPC’s total indebtedness to the Federation Account stood at about N4.9
trillion.
This figure, the Commission said, included NNPC’s claims for
subsidy on petroleum products, crude oil and product losses, strategic reserves
and the pipeline maintenance costs.
Following the report by the AuGF to the National Assembly
last week, the NNPC rejected the figure credited to it as unremitted revenues
to the Federation Account as at December 31, 2014.
Group Executive Director/Chief Financial Officer (Finance
& Accounts), Isiaka Abdulrazaq, who described the AuGF’s claims as erroneous,
said NNPC’s total debt to the Federation Account as at January 2015 FAAC
meeting report could not be more than N326.14 billion.
Mr. Abdulrazaq said with NNPC’s outstanding claims of N1.38
trillion still pending against the Federation Account as at 2009, the figure
could go lower at the end of the ongoing reconciliation by forensic auditors
appointed by the former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
But RMAFC said in addition to the N3.235 trillion the AuGF
said the NNPC was owing the Federation Account in 2014 from domestic crude
sale, the Commission’s records further revealed another debt of N1.99 trillion
for the same year for the same purpose.
On the alleged payment into an undisclosed Escrow Accounts of
$235 million from natural gas sale by NNPC, the Commission explained that the
national oil company, on behalf of the Nigeria LNG, entered a modified carry
agreement, MCA with three international oil companies, IOCs, namely Nigeria
Agip Oil Company, NAOC; Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, SPDC,
and Total E&P Nigeria Limited,TEPNG under which proceeds of sale would be
deposited in Escrow Accounts for funding of various gas projects under the
NLNG.
The Commission revealed that between 2012 and November 2015,
$1.615 billion was transferred to the various accounts.
The commission said it has consistently requested the NNPC to
provide it with updated financial statements on the projects without any
positive response.
Since last year, the Commission had been working with the
NNPC to reconcile the figures of its indebtedness to the Federation Account
following a tripartite meeting it held along with the Federal Ministry of
Finance on the issue.
During the committee’s meeting in December 2015, members
agreed that in view of the subsidy and other claims by the NNPC, the forensic
audit of the NNPC was critical to establish who was actually indebted to the
other.
The forensic audit is expected to be concluded by the end of
March 2016.
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