TheCable

‎The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says it has been vindicated by the audit report of PriceWaterHouse Coopers and it is now clear that no money is missing from the federation account.

Joseph Dawha, group managing director of‎ the NNPC, made this disclosure at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday.

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi had alleged that $ 20 billion (he subsequently said it was $12 billion) in oil money was unaccounted for, and the federal government later directed PWc to audit the corporation’s accounts..

“As you are aware the report of the forensic audit exercise conducted by PriceWaterHouseCoopers on the alleged unremitted $20 billion or $49.8 billion crude oil proceeds by the NNPC was submitted to his excellency, Mr President on Monday, February 2, 2015 and a few days later the auditor-general of the federation made the content public via a press conference,” Dawha said.

“As a corporation with long standing fiduciary responsibility to the government and people of the federal republic of Nigeria, we are indeed pleased that the forensic audit exercise has been concluded successfully and the report has clearly vindicated our long-held position that the said unremitted crude oil revenue or missing oil revenue was a farce from day one.”

He maintained that contrary to some media reports, NNPC was not i‎ndicted by the PWC forensic audit report.

“The entire revenues accruable to federation during the period has been fully accounted for in the report and the various components of the accruable revenue have also been clearly categorised,” he said.

“The issue of outstanding $1. 48 billion ‘NPDC signature bonus’ is, in fact, the balance of the book value of the divested assets as assessed by Department of Petroleum Resources(DPR) yet to be paid into the federation account by NNPC. This does not in any way constitute an indictment. Meanwhile, this value is still being reconciled with DPR.

“Let me emphasise that there is no money missing. However the delay in payment of the true value divested assets is due to the unfinished reconciliation process among NNPC, DPR and other agencies of government.

“It is therefore pertinent to note that the $1.48 billion amount was not part‎ of the alleged unremitted revenues from crude oil sales but the balance of the good and valuable consideration of the divested assets as assessed by DPR.

“Already, Diezani Alison-Madueke, minister of petroleum resources, ‎has already directed the NNPC to work closely with the DPR to defray the un-reconciled amount referred to in the forensic audit report as ‘signature bonus.'”

He further stated that the forensic audit report acknowledged that the total cash remitted into the federation accounts in relation to the crude oil sales in the period under review was $50. 81 billion and not $47 billion.

Regarding the kerosene subsidy issue, he said: “The forensic audit report also clarified that the subsidy on Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK) is still in force as the presidential directive of October 19, 2009 was not gazetted in line with provisions of Section 6 sub section 1 of the Petroleum Act of 1969.”

“The forensic audit report also acknowledged that the Section 7 Sub section 4 of the NNPC Act empowers the corporation to defray its costs and expenses, including the costs of its subsidiaries from crude oil revenues, though though it also recommended that the laws be reviewed to make the corporation meet its costs and expenses entirely from the value it creates. However, it should be noted that the NNPC currently receives no funding for the value destruction through pipeline vandalism, sabotage and crude oil and products theft; an issue that causes enormous losses to NNPC’s operation.

“It should therefore be noted that both the senate finance committee and the forensic audit reports confirmed that subsidy on premium motor spirit (PMS) and DPK stood at $8.7 billion which is in line with NNPC’s position. In closing, it is important to state once again that the PWC has cleared the NNPC of the charge of not remitting the alleged $49.8 billion, $10. 89 billion or $ 20 billion into the federation account as earlier stated.

“In most unequivocal terms, I wish to emphasise that the NNPC‎ was not indicted in the PWC report contrary to the insinuations in some quarters.”