Missing $20 Billion: NNPC Rejects Indictment

Despite the recommendation by
PriceWaterHouseCoopers, that the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) should
refund $1.48 billion (about N248.6 billion Naira)
to the federation account, the company has
insisted on Wednesday February 11, that it was
not indicted by the investigations carried out by
the audit firm.
According to Premium Times, Joseph Dawha, the
Group Managing Director (GMD) of NNPC, said the
investigations carried out by
PricewaterhouseCoopers over the alleged missing
$20 billion oil money, did not indict the corporation
in anyway.
Dawha said the report “has clearly vindicated our
long held position that the alleged unremitted crude
oil revenue was a farce from day one” .
READ ALSO: Auditor-General appears at House of
Reps before NNPC audit.
He said the $1.48billion the corporation was
directed to refund was actually the balance of the
book value of the divested assets transferred to
NNPC upstream subsidiary, the NPDC, excluding
taxes and royalties.
“This does not constitute indictment; rather this
value is still being reconciled with the Department of
Petroleum Resources (DPR). It is pertinent to note
that the $1.48bn was not part of the alleged
unremitted revenues from crude oil sales,” Dawha
insisted.
According to the GMD, what the DPR sent to NNPC
as the estimated value of the assets was
$1.847billion, out of which over $300 million was
paid as a token to indicate its commitment to
acquiring the assets pending resolution and
reconciliation by the two institutions.
On remittances of proceeds from crude oil sales
into the Federation Account for the period January
1, 2012 to 31 July, 2013, the GMD said that the PwC
Forensic Audit report was clear that NNPC remitted
$50.81billion out of a total of $69.34billion.
The report acknowledges that the balance was spent
on petrol and kerosene subsidy as well as the
Corporation’s operation costs.
He pointed out that both the Senate Finance
Committee probe report and the PwC forensic audit
report confirmed its position that subsidy on
kerosene was still in force as the Presidential
directive of October 19, 2009, was not gazetted in
line with the provisions of Section 6, Subsection 1 of
the Petroleum Act of 1969.
READ ALSO: Jonathan Receives NNPC Audit Report
On Missing Money
Though the audit report had recommended a review
of the laws to stop NNPC from deducting its costs
and expenses from crude oil sales proceeds, Dawha
acknowledged that they were not illegal.
Solomon Adeola, the Chairman of the Public
Accounts Committee of the House of
Representatives, said as far as the House was
concerned the report raised more questions than
answers to the missing Nigerian money.
It would be recalled that the audit firm
PriceWaterHouseCoopers after investigation of the
financial proceedings within the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) accused the
company for various questionable transactions.