The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday explained that the corporation should not be expected to sweep funds into the Consolidated Revenue Fund, when there is no surplus to remit.
Its Group Managing Director Andrew Yakubu, represented by Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr. Ibrahim Farouk, made the clarification to reporters in Abuja.
He was responding to the claim by the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, Abdulmumin Jibrin, that the NNPC owes the Federal Government N142.7billion in unremitted internally generated fund meant to be paid into the Federal Consolidated Account.
He, however, noted that the law makes it clear that it is surpluses that should be paid.
The NNPC chief said since the corporation is still working on its account books, it would not churn out any figure to the public in a hurry.
Yakubu said: “Before that however, we should like to emphasise that the NNPC cannot be expected to sweep funds into the Consolidated Revenue Fund, since the law specifically says it is surplus that should be so paid. In a situation where due to no fault of ours, we operate at a loss, there would not be any surplus to pay.
“Of course we are all living witnesses to the causes of our operational losses. These include having to buy crude at international rate but sell at regulated prices. Equally important is our role as product supplier of last resort. This particular role has taken a huge toll on our finances.”
“But as a Federal Government-owned corporation, we take this responsibility seriously. And we are pleased with our performance in this respect. Then there is the issue of pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft. Add to these is the difficult operational environment.”
The corporation noted that it had appeared before the committee to clarified the issues and it was agreed that the committee would raise a team from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to look into the books with seven days
Yakubu, however added: “It should be noted that one week after that meeting, no one visited us at the NNPC. This prompted us to write a reminder to the Office of the Accountant-General, who then replied to say that a team would come the following week.
“When we came to the House on the 25th of February, we informed the Committee that the team did not come and the chairman of the Committee got confirmation from the Accountant-General that his team was coming to the NNPC during the week.
“On the day of the visit, we sent the names of the team members to the security gate for clearance, and the officials from the Accountant-General’s office came in and we began to work. A while later, two members and the clerk of the House Committee on Finance arrived at the gate.
“What Honourable Jibrin failed to tell the press was that our security officers had requested that the honourable visitors may enter the premises but that their driver should come out after parking their vehicle at the visitors’ car park.
“The honourable members rejected this simple request insisting that they would park their car inside the premises. Unfortunately, while this was going on, the officer detailed to receive them at the main entrance was waiting for them. By the time he got to know what was happening the honourable members had left in anger.”
He said a review meeting with the team took place on Thursday, 7th March, 2013, where NNPC Account Department gave them all the books they asked for and an office to do their work.
Yakubu stressed that at the end of the day, the team presented their draft observations based on the financial statements of the Corporation and its 16 subsidiaries which they reviewed.
He said NNPC accountants duly clarified the observations made by the team and it was resolved that the next meeting would hold after the team had incorporated into its report the financials of NNPC Corporate which the team had curiously left out.
He further noted that “We should like to state that early yesterday morning we had called the clerk of the Committee to find out if there was really a need to come to the House in view of the fact that the team was still working. The clerk had informed us that it was not necessary for us to come.
“Curiously enough, even before the team could conclude their assignment Hon. Jibrin for reasons that we cannot fathom, but certainly calculated to put the Corporation in bad light went to town with news that his Committee has uncovered a debt of N142.7b that the Corporation was owing to the Federal Government.
“Ideally we would not have wanted to take issues with the National Assembly, but given the wide publicity that the allegations have received we owe Nigerians a duty to put things in proper perspectives.
Our position is that the team had not completed its assignment for reasons we will explain shortly.”
According to him, these notwithstanding, NNPC has continued over the years to provide to the Federation Account about N400 billion naira monthly from our upstream operations.
He said this is no mean feat, given the very difficult terrain in which the corporation has been operating.
He submitted that: “We believe that we deserve some recognition for this feat.
We would like to assure all Nigerians that we would continue to strive to live up to our mandate as contained in the Act establishing the Corporation.”
