2015-02-12 10:03
Abuja - The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on
Wednesday said that the report of the forensic audit carried out on its
books by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) did not indict it in anyway.
The
Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr Joseph Dawha, said at a news
conference in Abuja that the report, rather, absolved NNPC of
culpability on all counts.
The managing director, who was
clarifying the highlights of the PwC forensic audit report, expressed
joy at the successful completion of the exercise.
He said the report had laid to rest the 15-month long controversy over the allegation of missing 49.8 billion dollars.
"The
report has clearly vindicated our long held position that the alleged
unremitted crude oil revenue was a farce from day one,” he said.
On
the issue of the outstanding 1.48 billion, he explained that the amount
was the balance of the book value of the divested assets that were
transferred to NNPC upstream subsidiary.
Dawha said the amount
transferred to its subsidiary, the Nigerian Petroleum Development
Company (NPDC), excluded taxes and royalties.
“This does not
constitute indictment; rather this value is still being reconciled with
the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
"It is pertinent to
note that the 1.48 billion dollars is not part of the alleged unremitted
revenues from crude oil sales,” Dawha.
He explained that what the DPR sent to NNPC as the estimated value of the assets was 1.847 billion dollars.
He
said out of this, the corporation paid over 300 million dollars as a
token to indicate its commitment to acquiring the assets pending
resolution and reconciliation by NNPC and DPR.
On remittances of
proceeds from crude oil sales into the Federation Account from January
1, 2012 to July 31, 2013, he said the PwC forensic audit report was
clear on this.
He stated that NNPC remitted 50.81billion out of a total of 69.34billion dollars.
He
added that the report acknowledged that the balance was spent on petrol
and kerosene subsidy as well as the corporation’s operation costs.
He
explained that both the Senate Finance Committee probe report and the
PwC forensic audit report corroborated the corporation’s position on
kerosene subsidy.
He
said that subsidy on kerosene was still in force as the presidential
directive of October 19, 2009 was not gazetted in line with the
provisions of the Petroleum Act of 1969.
Dawha explained that
though the forensic audit report recommended a review of the laws to
stop NNPC from deducting its costs and expenses from crude oil sales
proceeds, they were not illegal.
He, however, stated that the
management of NNPC fully supported the ongoing process of reviewing the
laws governing its operations.
He said the corporation had
commenced internal transformation ahead of the passage of the Petroleum
Industry Bill (PIB) which was currently undergoing legislative processes
at the National Assembly.
He called on the media to eschew
sensationalism and help disseminate the facts regarding the alleged
missing money as contained in the reports of the various probes.
He urged Nigerians to shun malicious reports linking the corporation with missing or unremitted oil revenue.
He said that the various probe reports, including the latest PwC report, had clearly stated that "no oil money is missing”.
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