Sanusi reports unremitted $20b by NNPC

CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, on Tuesday insisted that NNPC was yet to remit 20 billion dollars to the nation’s account in the apex bank.
Sanusi made his position known when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Finance investigating the alleged missing 49.8 billion dollars in Abuja.
He said the unremitted 20 billion dollars was part of 67 billion dollars oil proceeds between Jan. 2012 and July 2013.
“It is established that out of the 67 billion dollars crude shipped by NNPC between Jan. 2012 and July 2013, 47 billion dollars was remitted to the Federation Account.

But the NNPC in a statement denied owing the Federation Account the $20billion, accusing the CBN of turning an auditor, instead of facing its statutory duty as a banker of last resort.
“Let me make this point clear, CBN is a banking outfit, not a petroleum outfit.”, said the NNPC group managing director, Andrew Yakubu, in a statement issued by the agency’s acting group public affairs manager, Omar Ibrahim.
“It is therefore understandable why they keep making unsubstantiated claims, which a little understanding of the technicalities of the oil industry would have saved them from making.
“CBN is not an auditing outfit. But what it is doing is now auditing.” The NNPC insisted that

Anticipating NNPC outburst, Sanusi told the Senate committee that “It is now up to the NNPC to prove that 20 billion dollars unremitted either did not belong to the federation or was legally and constitutionally spent.
“There is no dispute that 20 billion dollars out of the 67 billion dollars has not been paid into any account with the CBN’’, he said.
Sanusi added that the apex bank and NNPC had agreed on 14 billion dollars equity remitted and 16 billion dollars as payment to Federal Inland Revenue Services by International Oil Companies (IOCs).
Other reconciled remittances, he added, were two billion dollars royalty payment to Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) by IOCs and 16 billion dollars out of the 28 billion dollars taken as domestic crude paid in naira.
He further said that 12 billion dollars out of domestic crude sales was yet to be remitted to the bank, adding that NNPC had disclosed that N180 billion was spent as subsidy payments in 2012.
According to him, if PPPRA confirms the numbers, CBN will adjust the balance accordingly.
“As for the balance of 10.8 billion dollars, NNPC has publicly disclosed that 80 per cent applied to petrol and kerosene subsidy
“I have submitted to this committee written evidence of presidential directive eliminating subsidy since 2009 and NNPC needs to provide its authority for buying kerosene at N150 from federation account and selling at N40” , he said.
He added that by the act, “NNPC inflicted that loss on the federation.’’
The CBN governor noted that monthly returns of NNPC to Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meetings always indicated amount deducted as PMS subsidy.
He, however, said that “from April 2012 to date, NNPC returns indicated that it had not deducted anything for PMS.
On third party financing operating expenses not appropriated, he said that the apex bank was yet to get any documentation or proof.
Earlier, Dr Bright Okogu, Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, pleaded that his office, CBN and NNPC should be given one week to conclude the reconciliation of the accounts.
He said that reconciliation had been ongoing at FAAC, and that after the first meeting, the groups discovered that the outstanding payment was about 10.8 billion dollars against 49.8 billion dollars announced in the media.
“We request that the chairman of the committee should give us another one week to finish on the documents we already have”, he said
Chairman of the Senate committee, Alhaji Ahmed Makarfi, directed all the parties involved in the remittances and reconciliation to ensure that the verification and reconciliation were concluded on Feb. 7.
Makarfi adjourned hearing in the matter to Feb. 13.
The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr Andrew Yakubu insisted that Sanusi’s claim about the existence of an unremitted $20billion is far from the reality on ground.
It said this will be proved when investigations were concluded.
“The CBN boss had alleged that revenue from NPDC, a subsidiary of the NNPC, was not being remitted to the Federation Account,” it stated.
It expressed surprise that even after extensive clarification on the matter, the CBN was still confusing the role of NPDC as part of NNPC’s upstream operations.
The statement faulted Sanusi’s claim that NPDC’s gross earnings ought to be remitted to the Federation Account, explaining that the company was a limited liability outfit registered under CAMA to do business.

“We have no problem with auditing, but let the professionals, the certified bodies and agencies that are charged with this responsibility of auditing, do their work’’, it stated.
It explained that the issues raised by Sanusi were not fresh at all and would be eventually reconciled by the Inter Agency Committee established to settle the $49.8 billion saga.
“Our position remains the same and we remain open to all stakeholders.
“These are issues that are currently before the reconciliation committee and before now it has been a subject of monthly verification before FAAC and other stakeholders”, it stated.
It reiterated what the Director-General of Budget had said at the hearing that a lot of progress had been made in the reconciliation of the $10.8 billion.
It expressed the hope that the final report would be ready, and NNPC vindicated, by the time the committee meets next week.