TheCable

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) earned a total of N8.1 trillion between 2012 and 2015, but only remitted N4.3 trillion into the federation account, the National Economic Council (NEC) chaired by Vice President ‎Yemi Osinbajo has said.

The NEC, which was inaugurated only on Monday, also said the Goodluck Jonathan ‎administration spent $2.1 billion from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) without securing the approval of the NEC).

The body therefore ‎set up a four-member committee comprising Governors of Adams Oshiomhole (Edo), Ibrahim Dankwanbo Gombe, Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna) and Emmanuel Udom (Akwa Ibom) to examine the books and submit a report by its next meeting scheduled for July 23.‎

Briefing state house correspondents at the end of the meeting, Governors Abdulazeez Yari, (Zamfara), Oshiomhole, Udom and Dankwanbo said the decision to launch an investigation was prompted by the submissions of the director in charge of funds at the Accountant-General’s Office on both the ECA, NNPC and Federation accounts.

“A four-man committee was constituted to go through the books of ‎NNPC and Excess Crude as well as the federation account,” Yari said.

“‎The committee will check the books of NNPC, most specially the issue of excess crude and what is not remitted into the Federation Account.

“The federal government, in conjunction with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), will look inwards to see how to support how much they will give to state, how much they will give to state especially in the issue of outstanding salaries owed by the states and even the federal government.”

The council being inaugurated by Buhari

Also speaking, Oshiomhole‎ said that this was the first time that the  NNPC and the office of the accountant-general of the federation were compelled to provide information in black and white on issues relating to the total crude oil sales from 2012 to May 2015.

“This has never happened before and for us this is profound. We are talking about transparency, we are talking about change. And what we saw from those numbers, ‎I believe that what 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,” he said.

“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 the cost of running NNPC is much more than the cost of running the federal government. That tells you how much is missing, what is mismanaged, what is stolen; there are huge figures.

“NIMASA, for example, ‎whatever they earned, they are supposed to pay into federation account and also present their budget of their requirement. This is what the constitution provided for. And this is what President Buhari has promised to do that henceforth all monies must go to the federation account. What you need, you budget for.

“Nigeria cannot continue with you earn the money and spend it. Where is the transparency? Where is the role of the national assembly? So if you were doing that, you won’t have a situation where the NNPC alone will spend N3.8 trillion and remit to the federal, states and local governments N4.3 trillion, which means NNPC is taking about 47 per cent and that explains all the leakages you are talking about.”

“‎There is no major player, there is no major registered company that will spend money without a budget. Even a private company, you will have your board of directors looking at your revenue, total sales, your turnover, your personnel cost, running cost, visible and invisible and you have the budget for the year that is how every sensible business runs. That is the way it was when President Buhari was minister of petroleum, so we are not reinventing the wheel, that is the way it use to be and that is the way the constitution says it should.

“We looked at the numbers for the ECA, the last time the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, reported to the council and it is in the minute, she reported by November 2014 that we had $4.1 billion. But today, the accountant-general’s office reported we have $2.0 billion, which means the honourable minister spent $2.1 billion without authority of the NEC. And that money was not distributed to states, it was not paid to the three tiers of government. This is why the NEC has set up a panel to look at what accrued, what was it spent for, when and by whom. So that Nigerians will have the full picture of all the transactions as regards the much talked about Excess crude.”