13th December, 2013
Following revelations by Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, between 2012 and 2013 failed to remit nearly $50 billion into the Federation Account, the Federal Government has ordered an audit of the corporation’s accounts.
In a statement published in some newspapers on Friday, the CBN revealed that it was aware that the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Alison Madueke, has directed an audit firm, PWC, to look into the revenues of the NNPC.
CBN said it is also aware of a proposal to set up a technical team made up of representatives the Federal Ministry of Finance, the NNPC and the CBN to examine the sources of any revenue leakages and propose appropriate fiscal controls.
“The CBN welcomes these initiatives and believes that they represent a positive contribution to the process of improving the management of the economy, especially if they lead to greater oversight of the Finance Ministry over oil revenues and improvements in disclosure and transparency in the oil industry.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria recognizes that there is an urgent need to review fiscal terms of sharing revenues between the Federal Government and oil companies and to improve governance and transparency in the official oil sector. This underscores the need to urgently pass a Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) that addresses fiscal terms and the structure of the NNPC. We therefore support the effort of the Federal Government to pass a new PIB,” CBN said.
The CBN said it will continue to use appropriate channels of communication in these matters and assured stakeholders of its continued support in all efforts aimed at strengthening the Nigerian economy and reducing its vulnerability to shocks from the external sector.
The CBN governor had in a letter dated 25 September complained to President Jonathan about the continuing refusal of the NNPC to honour its legal obligations, including failure to remit $49.8 billion to the Federation Account between 2012 and 2013. This amount represents 76 percent of the value of crude oil liftings during the period.
Governors under the platform of the All Progressives Congress, have similarly drawn attention to the under-reporting of oil income and the illegal withdrawal of $5billion from the Excess Crude Account.
“Our analysis of the value of crude oil export proceeds based on the documentation received from pre-shipment inspectors shows that between January 2012 and July 2013, NNPC lifted 594,024,107 barrels of crude valued at $65,332,350,514.57,” the letter said. “Out of this amount, NNPC repatriated only $15,528,410,098.77, representing 24 percent of the value. This means the NNPC is yet to account for, and repatriate to the Federation Account, an amount in excess of $49.804 billion of the value of oil lifted in the same period,” Sanusi stated in his letter to the president.
—Simon Ateba