Nigeria’s state oil company on Wednesday said a report by the auditor-general which made allegations that it had failed to remit 3.2 trillion naira ($16 billion) in revenues to the government in 2014 were wrong.
“NNPC wishes to state in strong terms that the AuGF’s declaration is erroneous,” it said in a statement.
The Auditor General for Federation, Samuel Ukura said on Monday he had discovered a monumental fraud amounting to N3.3 trillion in some government agencies including the NNPC.
Out of the N3.3 trillion massive fraud, about N3.2 trillion of excess crude account was not remitted into the federation account in 2014 according to the report submitted to the Clerk of the National Assembly, Salisu Maikasuwa.
ABOVE PHOTO: Present NNPC GMD, Kachikwu
“Review of sales profile on sales of Gas to Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas(NLNG) was not paid to the Federation Account but transferred to some undisclosed Escrow Accounts. Relevant documents were not made available for verification.”
However, in a statement made available to elombah.com the state oil company says “NNPC wishes to state in strong terms that the AuGF’s (Auditor General of the Federation’s) declaration is erroneous,” it said in a statement, adding that the auditor-general had failed to account for costs including a fuel subsidy, pipeline vandalism and maintenance.
“Consequently, the figure owed to the Federation Account as at January 2015 Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting report was N326,142,137,205.79 ($1.64 billion)…and not the N3.23 trillion alleged by the AuGF,” said NNPC.
Under the constitution, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) must hand over its oil revenue – which makes up about 70 percent of total income – and money is then paid back based on a budget approved by parliament.
But the act establishing the state oil company allows it to cover costs before remitting funds to the government.