NEITI Persuades Govt To Recover $22b, N316b From NNPC
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) report on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiaries has shown that $22 billion is yet to be remitted to the treasury by the oil giant and persuades the government to recover the loot.
NEITI persuaded the Nigerian government yesterday to recover the cash through its Executive Secretary, Waziri Adio at an interactive session with reporters in
Abuja.
Adio said, "The audits of the oil and gas sector carried out by NEITI show that the NNPC and its upstream arm, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), have failed to remit $ 21.778 billion and N316.074 billion to the Federation Account."
Adio added that the funds were due from three main sources, which he listed as:
•federation assets divested to NPDC;
•the company's legacy liabilities payment for domestic crude allocation to NNPC; and
•dividends from investment in Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG) paid to the NNPC.
Adio asserted that the corporation had been withholding the funds. The unremitted funds, the NEITI boss added, fall under the categories of the full payment for the 12 Oil Mining Leases (OMLs) divested from Shell and Agip Ventures as well as NNPC divestment of 55 per cent of its stake in the Shell JV valued at $1.8 billion by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
The audit showed that cash calls amounting to $552 million were falsely paid on these divested assets by the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), the investment arm of NNPC.
The NPDC was alleged to have refunded $424 million to NAPIMS, but the money was never remitted to the Federation Account.
NEITI report added that the NPDC was yet to refund $ 148.278 million and N2.42 billion from the cash calls mistakenly paid to it.
It however explained that unremitted revenues in this category include arrears of liabilities of taxes, royalties and levies, leaving the amount owed by the NPDC at $5.531
billion and N72.435 billion.
Adio further stated that NNPC explained that it withheld the funds to pay for downstream related operational costs and subsidies.
According to Adio, the explanation was doubtful since such withholdings regularly exceeded actual subsidy costs.
Adio stressed that the government should recover the money and use it to put the economy on a sound shape.
NEITI persuaded the Nigerian government yesterday to recover the cash through its Executive Secretary, Waziri Adio at an interactive session with reporters in
Abuja.
Adio said, "The audits of the oil and gas sector carried out by NEITI show that the NNPC and its upstream arm, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), have failed to remit $ 21.778 billion and N316.074 billion to the Federation Account."
Adio added that the funds were due from three main sources, which he listed as:
•federation assets divested to NPDC;
•the company's legacy liabilities payment for domestic crude allocation to NNPC; and
•dividends from investment in Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG) paid to the NNPC.
Adio asserted that the corporation had been withholding the funds. The unremitted funds, the NEITI boss added, fall under the categories of the full payment for the 12 Oil Mining Leases (OMLs) divested from Shell and Agip Ventures as well as NNPC divestment of 55 per cent of its stake in the Shell JV valued at $1.8 billion by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
The audit showed that cash calls amounting to $552 million were falsely paid on these divested assets by the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), the investment arm of NNPC.
The NPDC was alleged to have refunded $424 million to NAPIMS, but the money was never remitted to the Federation Account.
NEITI report added that the NPDC was yet to refund $ 148.278 million and N2.42 billion from the cash calls mistakenly paid to it.
It however explained that unremitted revenues in this category include arrears of liabilities of taxes, royalties and levies, leaving the amount owed by the NPDC at $5.531
billion and N72.435 billion.
Adio further stated that NNPC explained that it withheld the funds to pay for downstream related operational costs and subsidies.
According to Adio, the explanation was doubtful since such withholdings regularly exceeded actual subsidy costs.
Adio stressed that the government should recover the money and use it to put the economy on a sound shape.
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