Missing $17B Reps uncover $15bn unremitted oil, gas revenue

House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee investigating allegedly missing 17 billion dollars crude oil and Liquified Natural Gas revenue, on Monday uncovered 15 billion dollars unremitted revenue into Federation Account.
The
trace of the alleged missing fund believed to have been stolen and
diverted to a foreign destination, was contained in the two documents
submitted by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) at the
committee’s sitting.
While responding to questions from members of the committee, Mr Rabiu Bello, NNPC’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), admitted that there were discrepancies in the documents.
In his presentation earlier, Mr Jack Ukitetu,
a Director in Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), who represented the bank’s
Governor, explained that the Accountant-General of the Federation
approved and determined the money accrued to the Excess Crude Account.
Ukitetu
said that before 2006, the CBN collected the money on behalf of
government’s agencies and remitted into the Federal Reserve Account in
New York and charged 0.25 per cent.
He, however, added that after 2006, the oil companies paid directly what was due to the government.
On
commissions being collected by the apex bank, the director told the
lawmakers that the CBN collected 0.25 per cent via foreign exchange
allocation and did not charge the Federal Government as deduction were
made from central sales.
Meanwhile, Mr Waziri Adio,
Executive Secretary of Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency
Initiative (NEITI), who had accused NNPC and CBN of misleading the ad
hoc committee, pleaded to withdraw the earlier documents submitted.
He,
however, pledged to submit “more damaging documents” on the alleged
crude oil theft to the committee on Wednesday “ which will help in
unearthing the unremitted revenue accrued from oil and gas but not
remitted”.
Speaking earlier, Chairman of the committee, Rep. Abdulrazak Namdas,
said that the committee would not hesitate to submit its report to the
House without the inputs of major Ministries, Departments and Agencies
(MDAs) which failed to honour the committee’s invitation.
Toward
this, the committee mandated the CBN and NNPC to submit the audited
report of the oil and gas account showing the remitted funds into the
Federation Account between 2011 and 2014.
The
NNPC was also directed to submit the Bill of Laden relating to the
974,721 barrels of crude oil lifted on Oct. 20, 2011 and 961,963 barrels
lifted on Oct. 10, 2011.
It also included 974, 935 barrels lifted on July 9, 2011 and 974,953 barrels lifted on July 18, 2011 but were not declared.
The
lawmakers also requested for report of the reconciliation conducted by
NNPC and Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as well as the list of
oil off-takers for 2013 and 2014.
Similarly,
NNPC is expected to provide details of the companies that paid oil tax
between 2011 and 2014 as well as the Letter of Credits (LCs) of all the
monies paid into the Federation Account within the period.
Missing $17B Reps uncover $15bn unremitted oil, gas revenue
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