THE Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was unable yesterday to defend the N1.35 trillion spent in 2011 when it appeared before the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committee on Petroleum (upstream) to defend its 2012 budget.
Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr. Austin Oniwon, who was represented by the corporation’s Group General Manager of the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), Mr. Morrison Fiddi, could not give details of the 2011 budget and answer whether the funds expended were appropriated by the National Assembly.
He failed to give satisfactory explanations and was unable to convince the joint committee on how the NNPC came about the purported $9.387 billion or $8.722 billion it spent in 2011 when Fiddi presented an overview of the corporation’s 2011 budget performance.
He told the joint committee chaired by Senator Emmanuel Paulker that although the NNPC requested for $10.553 billion as its 2011 budget, $8.722 billion was approved for the year.
‘For 2011, we requested for $10.55bilion but $8.722 billion was approved. In totality, the performance for 2011 was 88 per cent.
The security issue in 2011 affected our operations in the Niger Delta. The security situation was very high, but we are improving and in 2012, we are hoping that it would be better.
‘Also, pipeline vandalisation affected our target, but we were able to achieve 88 per cent.
Hopefully, all these would be addressed in 2012,’ he added.
Surprised about the disparities in the figures quoted by NNPC, Mr. Ajibola Muraino demanded to know how the NNPC came about another figure of $9.387 billion as its approved budget for 2011.
Senator Paulker also asked NNPC to explain how it came up with the $9.387 listed on page 17 of the document the corporation presented to the joint committee, adding that ‘you told us in your earlier presentation that you over-performed in certain areas.
Yet, the chart you presented to us doesn’t reflect anything like that. Where are the figures because the ones you have presented to us do not tally?
‘This country belongs to all of us and we should be able to share ideas on how to move the country forward. Go and reconcile your figures and come back.’
The Moment recalls that the National Assembly had in the past made several attempts to compel the NNPC to forward its budget for consideration and approval without any success.
When President Goodluck Jonathan presented the 2012 budget to the joint session of the National Assembly, Senate President David Mark had warned that the passage of the 2012 would be predicated on the presentation of the budget of the NNPC, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), among other government agencies.
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