NNPC still has $22.8b to remit, NEITI insists
By Rotimi Akinwumi and Joe Egbodo, Abuja
TheNigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) 2009-2011 audited report which claimed that $22.8 billion was not disclosed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in its audited financial statements of the alternative funding arrangement with its joint venture partners reverberated before the House of Representatives joint committees on Petroleum Resources, Upstream, Petroleum Resources Downstream and Justice on Wednesday.
Executive Secretary of NEITI, Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, told the lawmakers that she was still standing by the report.
Ahmed equally faulted the claim by NNPC Group Managing Director, Andrew Yakubu, that the Corporation did not connive with some Swiss oil dealers to short-change the country to the tune of $6.8 billion.
The NEITI boss further stated that from 2009 to 2011 the country lost N98.3 billion to NNPC in exchange rates compared to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) official exchange rate during the period.
However, Managing Director of the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC), Haruna Momoh, in his presentation to the committee debunked the claim that the nation is losing $8 billion annually through swap arrangement of crude oil between NNPC and some foreign oil companies.
Momoh also maintained that the crude oil swap arrangement was in the best interest of the country, saying it has guaranteed supply of the petroleum products in the country.
He added that there was no shady arrangement in the crude oil swap arrangement, stressing that the swap arrangement is not a permanent arrangement.
"It will soon be phased out once the refineries are operating in full capacity and when new refineries comes on board," Momoh said.
But the NEITI boss who appeared before the House joint committee probing the allegation insisted that the Bernes Declaration report which indicted the NNPC had substance.
The NNPC boss too had during his appearance before the committee on Tuesday rubbished the Bernes Declaration report, saying it was false.
However, chairman of the panel, Ajibola Muraina, has adjourned the investigative hearing till March 25 after ruling that the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Acting Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and Executive Secretary of Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), among others, must appear before the panel on the adjourned date.
