Again, Senate panel summons NNPC over nonremittance of N4.07trn revenue

The Senate Committee on Public Accounts has again summoned the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation over nonremittance of N4.07trn revenue to the federation account between 2010 and 2016.

It also summoned the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) regarding the query against them by the Office of AuditorGeneral for the Federation.

The NNPC had appeared before the committee chaired by Senator Matthew Urhoghide two weeks ago and explained that the money in question was expended on oil pipeline repairs, domestic fuel supplies heavily subsidized, security and management matters.

The committee, however, asked NNPC to provide it with the required details within a week upon which the query will be vacated or sustained.

Urhoghide said the NNPC still needed to appear before the committee to defend some claims in the document it submitted.

The NNPC is expected to appear before the committee on or before Thursday this week.

Meanwhile, the committee has sustained the query of the Office of Auditor-General for the Federation against the NNPC, the DPR and the Federal Inland Revenue Services over unauthorized deduction of N1.5 trillion from the Federation Account.

According to the query, the total revenue inflows to the Federation Account from the various collecting agencies as per the Central Bank of Nigeria component statements for the period under audit amounted to N6.4trn.

"From the total revenue of N2.4trn payable to the Federation Account by NNPC, the corporation deducted the sum of 1.3trn for the Joint Venture Cash Call before paying the resulting net figure of 1.07trn into the Federation Account.

"DPR collected the sum of 733bn, but paid a net figure of 706bn to the Federation Account after deducting excess proceeds on royalty of N26.7bn.

"The total amount of 2.6trn was generated by FIRS for the period under audit; however, the actual amount paid into the Federation Account was 2.4trn after deducting 196.5bn being the total excess proceeds on royalty.”