Nnpc Yet To Remit N4.9trn To Federation Account – Rmafc

Source: thewillnigeria.com

SAN FRANCISCO, March 21, (THEWILL) – Less than a fortnight after the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, AGF, revealed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, failed to remit N3.2tn, the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC has declared that the corporation is owing the Federation Account a total of N4.9trn in unremitted funds.

The state oil company had promptly denied the claim by the AGF, in a document signed by its Group Executive Director/Chief Financial Officer, Finance and Accounts, Mr. Isiaka Abdulrazaq, who said the declaration was inaccurate, stressing that “the declaration by the AGF may have been born out of a misunderstanding of how revenues from crude oil and gas sales are remitted into the Federation Account.”

But in a new twist on Monday, the RMAFC insisted that the funds not remitted to the Federation Account by the NNPC amounted to N4.9tn between January 2011 and December 2015.

The RMAFC spokesperson, Mr. Ibrahim Mohammed, in a statement issued in Abuja, said the figure of N3.2tn was from the 2014 Annual Audit Report obtained from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC's Technical Sub-Committee on Domestic Crude Oil Sales and Reconciliation Statement as contained in the NNPC's mandate to the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

“Available records at the commission's disposal indicate that between January 2011 and December 2015, the total indebtedness of the NNPC to the Federation Account was N4.9tn, a figure that included the NNPC's claims for subsidy on petroleum products, crude and product losses, strategic reserves and pipeline maintenance cost,” Mohammed said.

He continued that while the AGF's report claimed that the corporation owed the sum of N3.2tn to the Federation Account in 2014 from domestic crude sale, the commission's records revealed that the NNPC owed the sum of N1.99tn for the year from domestic crude sales. Thus, the figure quoted by the Auditor-General must have included revenues from other sources, Mohammed said.

According to Mohammed, “With regard to the alleged payment of $235m realised from the sale of natural gas into an undisclosed escrow account by the NNPC, the NNPC on behalf of the NLNG had entered into agreements with three International Oil Companies i.e. Nigeria Agip Oil Company, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria and Total E&P Nigeria Limited under a Modified Carry Agreement, proceeds from which are deposited in escrow accounts for funding the various gas projects under the NLNG.

“The total amount transferred to the various accounts from 2012 to November 2015 was $1.62bn. The commission, through the FAAC Post Mortem, has consistently requested the NNPC to provide it with updated financial statements on the projects, but the NNPC has yet to respond.

“The commission has been working with the NNPC to reconcile the figures following a tripartite meeting held with the NNPC, Federal Ministry of Finance and the RMAFC in December 2015, where it was agreed that in view of the subsidy and other claims by the NNPC, the forensic audit of the NNPC was very critical in establishing which party was actually indebted to the other.”

RMAFC spokesperson further asserted that the forensic audit was expected to be concluded by the end of March.