NNPC cannot account for $20bn, Sanusi insists

CBN Governor, Mr. Lamido Sanusi

The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Lamido Sanusi, on Tuesday said the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation had yet to remit to the Federation Account $20bn out of the $67bn it realised from crude oil sale on behalf of the Federal Government.

Sanusi, who stated this when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Finance currently investigating the alleged non-remittance,  also explained that he had submitted a 20-page document backed up with another 30-page appendix to prove his point.

The CBN boss told the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led committee that certain level of reconciliation had been achieved from the meetings the bank had with the NNPC and other relevant agencies since the allegation of the unremitted funds became a public issue.

He said, “The NNPC did a presentation. We had all agreed that $14bn out of the $67bn they shipped came in to the dollar account of the federation.

“We have looked at the Federal Inland Revenue Service numbers and we have confirmed that $16bn paid by the International Oil Companies to the FIRS account was not paid by the NNPC but paid by the IOCs.

“It was the proceeds of the crude lifted in the name of the NNPC but sold on behalf of the FIRS. That $16bn had been confirmed by the FIRS and accepted. There is the $1.6bn that the Department of Petroleum Resources also received from the IOCs, which is part of that crude and which the CBN has accepted.

“We have provided evidence in the naira crude account that out of the $28bn domestic crude shipped by the NNPC, it had repatriated $16bn. Out of the $67bn that has accrued to the NNPC account, we have accounted for $47bn.

“That is, out of the $67bn that the NNPC shipped, $47bn had been repatriated to the CBN. What we are talking about is the balance of $20bn and what explanations had been given.”

Sanusi told the committee that the NNPC had said some of the proceeds from the crude sale did not belong to the Federation Account, but noted that it was established during the reconciliation meetings that some of the crude shipped by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company was from oil wells belonging to the federation.

He also accused the NNPC of transferring revenues that should go to the Federation Account for remittance.

Sanusi said, “I have given free legal opinion to this committee on the unconstitutionality and illegality of that transaction. Secondly, the NNPC had explained that 80 per cent of that money yet to be repatriated was spent on kerosene and fuel subsidy.

“I have submitted to this committee written evidence of a presidential directive eliminating subsidy since 2009 and the NNPC needs to provide its authority for buying kerosene at N150 and from the Federation Account and selling at N40, and inflicting that loss on the federation.

“The NNPC had also said that it was DPR, but for us in the CBN, every month the NNPC sends report to the FAAC. And every month, the NNPC indicates how much it has deducted as PMS subsidy.

“From April 2012 to date, the NNPC has submitted reports to the FAAC consistently showing it is deducting nothing from PMS; so, we are surprised that having submitted nil returns since April 2012, we are now being told that deductions were being made.

“I don’t know whether they were made and whether the DPR had approved them. We are waiting for the reconciliation with the PPPRA. The other part of third party financing, which was not appropriated, had no documentation or proofs.

“All we have said at the CBN and to which there is no disagreement is that the NNPC shipped $67bn worth of crude; we have established that $47bn has come back to the federation.

“There is a $20bn balance that has not come back to us. The burden of proof is on the NNPC. We have made suggestions that can help to answer some of the explanations and we believe that even some of what they claimed were shipped by the NPDC does not belong to the NPDC but to the federation.”

But the Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mr. Andrew Yakubu, told journalists after the meeting that the corporation was still reconciling its accounts and that it was currently at the point of conclusion of the reconciliation process with the various agencies.

He said it was at the end of it that he would submit the detailed reconciled position, which the committee would study and then review in details.

“That is where we are and what we reported is the true position of things; we are at the point of concluding our reconciliation, and as you are aware, the major chunk of the amount in question, over 80 per cent of it is in the subsidy for both PMS and kerosene,” Yakubu said.

He noted the Director-General of the Budget Office, Dr. Bright Okogwu, complained that the CBN had yet to submit any document for the reconciliation and wondered why it did not do so.

Yakubu said, “We are at the point of concluding reconciliation, we have been reconciling with the PPPRA on the subsidy documentation for the PMS and kerosene and the PPPRA testified to that; we are at the point of rounding up the major chunk of the entire amount in question.

“As soon as that is done, we will reconcile, sign off and do a formal presentation to the committee.”

On the fresh allegation of unremitted $20bn, Yakubu said, “You heard the chairman (of the committee) very well; the issues that were raised were not new at all; we don’t have anything to hide and we gave a detailed breakdown on the so called $49bn.

“We came out clearly to state the various streams that are associated with what he (Sanusi) was talking about. We made it clear; if we had anything to hide, we wouldn’t have made it clear that the NPDC was part of the stream.

“The NPDC, which is part of the NNPC upstream operation, is an NNPC upstream limited liability company registered under the CAMA (Companies and Allied Matters Act) to do any upstream business like any other independent company; if you look in your business, will you take your gross revenue and pass it on?

“What we simply said is to account for the streams that the CBN governor erroneously captured; now, let me make this point very clear, the CBN is a banking outfit; so, I really don’t understand why they will not understand some petroleum engineering issues.

“They (CBN) are also not an auditing outfit; now, what they are trying to do is to audit and make some statements that they do not have this document, they do not have that document; they are not auditors, we have certified bodies and arms of agencies that are charged with the responsibility of auditing, they are in banking.

“We have royalties; we have petroleum profit tax and so on; these are subject of other detail discussions and investigations, and they are open. We gave access to the auditor-general, accountant-general and agencies that have business to do with auditing our own business, and the Federation Account too.

“We render this report as you are told on monthly basis; these are issues that are subject of reconciliation on monthly basis; so, really for issues like this to come to the public glare again becomes worrisome. We throw away numbers, we throw away allegation that at the end of the day we clarify; but then, the damage would have been done.