Revealed! NNPC Spent N3.8tn in Three Years Without Approval

 

 

The National Economic Council, NEC, has revealed.that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation,NNPC, spent N3.8 trillion in three years without approval.

 

The latest indictment of the corporation, confirmed the forensic audit report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the 2012 report of the Presidential Committee on the Verification of Fuel Subsidies, which both revealed that the NNPC deducts as much as 46 per cent of oil receipts to meet its expenditure before remitting the balance to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CFR).

 

This disclosure  was made when the Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole in the company of his Kaduna and Zamfara counterparts, Nasir el-Rufai and Abdulazeez Yari, briefed State House correspondents after the inauguration of the National Economic Council (NEC) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Monday, June 29.

Speaking at the NEC meeting, Oshiomhole said, President Muhammadu Buhari instructed that the NNPC and the office of the Accountant General of the Federation were compelled to provide information in black and white on issues as they relate to the sale of the nation’s crude oil from 2012 to May 2015.

He said: “We are talking about transparency, we are talking about change. And what we saw from those numbers, I believe that Nigerians are entitled to know, is that whereas the NNPC claimed to have earned N8.1 trillion, what NNPC paid into the Federation Account from 2012 to May 2015 was N4.3 trillion.

“What it means is that NNPC withheld and spent N3.8 trillion. The major revelation here is that the entire federation, that is, the federal government, the states and all the 774 local governments, the amount the NNPC paid into the Federation Account for distribution to this three tiers of government came to N4.3 trillion and NNPC alone took and spent N3.8 trillion.

“Which means that the cost of running NNPC was much more than the cost of running the federation; that tells you how much is missing, what is mismanaged, what is stolen and these are huge figures.

“We need to earn and spend, it is basic law in accounting that even if you run a cigarette shop where you sell Three-Rings (a cigarette brand), you don't sell and spend. You sell, take to your bank account, and you budget for your procurement including cost of running your business."

The Council’s next meeting of the council is on July 23rd, and Mr. El- Rufai said he hopes the committee will complete its work and be in position to report to council on that day.

Zamfara governor, Abdulazeez Yari, said the council also agreed that the Federal Government in conjunction with the Central Bank, will see how to support financially ailing states.