Again, Controversial CBN Governor Raises Alarm Over 'Missing $20bn' Oil Proceeds
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We've Nothing To Hide - NNPC BEVERLY HILLS, February 04, (THEWILL) - The controversial Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has raised the alarm over what he alleged as missing oil proceeds at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
On Tuesday, Sanusi raised the figures of alleged missing crude money to $20 billion, alleging that NNPC is yet to account for $20 billion oil proceeds from a total $67 billion in crude sales.
The amount is $10 billion more than the earlier $10 billion that is in contention and for which the public hearing was organised by the Senate.
THEWILL recalls that Sanusi has been inconsistent with the figures he claims are "missing.
" At various times the controversial banker had put the figures allegedly missing at $49 billion and $10 billion.
He had also said at some point that no funds were missing since accounts were still being reconciled amongst all the agencies involved.
However, the NNPC Group Managing Director, Mr Andrew Yakubu, at Tuesday's session lashed out at Sanusi, saying he and CBN do not understand some petroleum engineering issues , maintaining that CBN is not an auditing outfit.
But the Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Ahmed Maikarfi, halted Sanusi telling him that what he is claiming is not new, adding that the Committee will surely reconcile the account of the relevant agencies to determine what actually comes to the Federation Account.
Sanusi, who took his turn to make submissions on the public hearing to unravel the alleged missing $49billion oil proceeds alleged that out of $67billion that NNPC shipped, $47 billion had been repatriated to the CBN .
He added that what is in contention is the balance of the $20billion on which explanations have been given.
He further alleged that NNPC had said that some of the money does not belong to the Federation Account.
"We have held the position that some of the crude shipped by Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) is shipped from oil wells that belonged to the federation,' he said.
Sanusi also claimed that CBN has confirmed that $16bn paid to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) was not paid by NNPC but was paid by the International Oil Companies (IOCs).
He added that the money was the proceeds of crude lifted in the name of NNPC but sold on behalf of FIRS.
According to Sanusi: "We have looked at FIRS 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 IOCs.
"It was the proceeds of crude lifted in the name of NNPC but sold on behalf of FIRS.
That $16bn had been confirmed by FIRS and had been accepted.
There is $1.
6bn dollars that Directorate of Petroleum Resources (DPR) also received from the IOCs which was part of that crude and which CBN had accepted.
We have provided evidence in the naira crude account out of the $28bn domestic crude shipped by the NNPC, out of which it had repatriated $16bn .
"Out of the $67bn that has accrued to the NNPC account, we have accounted for $47bn.
Out of the $67bn that the NNPC shipped, $47bn had been repatriated to the CBN.
What we are talking about is the balance of the $20bn and what explanations had been given.
"Secondly, NNPC had explained that 80 per cent of that money is yet to be repatriated .
On kerosene and fuel subsidy, I have submitted to this committee written evidence of a presidential directive eliminating subsidy since 2009 and 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.
"NNPC had also said that it is DPR but for us in the CBN, every month, NNPC sends report for FAAC.
And every month NNPC indicates how much it has deducted as PMS subsidy, From April 2012 to date, NNPC had 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 now 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 PPRA.
"The other part of third party financing which were not appropriated had no documentation or proofs.
"All we have said as CBN to which there is no disagreement is that NNPC shipped $67bn worth of crude they have repatriated or we have established that $47bn dollars has come back to the federation.
There is a $20bn that has not come back to us.
The burden of proof is on NNPC.
" Speaking to journalists later, the NNPC/GMD, Yakubu, said the corporation has nothing to hide as he maintained that Sanusi was not saying anything new.
"Now let me make this point very clearly, CBN is a banking outfit , so I really don't understand why they will not understand some petroleum engineering issues and also they are 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 the auditors, we have certified bodies and arms of agencies that are charged with the responsibility of auditing What he said was not really new.
We said clearly, we stated an amount that went to NPDC and that amount was the gross lifting but there are other streams that go back to the government in terms of taxes any other business player, we have royalties, we have petroleum profit tax, etc,' he said.
Yakubu further declared: "You heard the chairman very well, the issues that were raised are not new at all, on the issues that were raised, we came out in details, we don't have anything to hide and we gave a detailed breakdown on the so called $49bn, and we came out clearly to state the various streams that are associated with what he was talking about.
"Now we made it clear; if we had anything to hide, we wouldn't have made it clear , that NPDC was part of the stream, because NPDC is part of NNPC upstream operation, it is an NNPC upstream limited liability company registered under KAMA 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 the CBN governor erroneously captured," he said.
The hearing was adjourned to Monday.
EMMA UCHE, ABUJA