Non-remittance of N450bn by NNPC: Reps discontinue probe

There were indications, weekend, that the House of Representatives Joint Committees on Finance, Petroleum Upstream and Downstream and Gas may have discontinued the probe into the non-remittance of N450 billion into the Federation Account by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.

Though the decision to probe the alleged non-remittance was sequel to the adoption of a motion by the House of Representatives, Vanguard gathered that the decision to discontinue the probe may not be unconnected with pressure from the executive arm of government which had set up some committees to probe activities of the petroleum sector.

It would be recalled that the committees under the leadership of Abdulmumin Jibrin (PDP, Kano), Chairman of the House Committee on Finance  held  public hearing  last November to determine why the NNPC failed to remit over N450 billion to the Federation Account.

Though the hearing was almost marred by internal squabbles among members, several revelations were uncovered before the House mandated the Faruk Lawan-led Ad Hoc committee to investigate the subsidy regime in the country.

Spokesman of the House of Representatives,  Zakari Mohammed told Vanguard that the House was awaiting for the report of the Faruk Lawan-led Ad Hoc committee on fuel subsidy which he said was more all encompassing.

He said: “What the House did was to await the report of the Faruk Lawan committee which has a broader mandate. If the report of the committee is out and some of the areas are not covered, then the committee can continue with its work.

There is no need to contine when the issues raised are covered by the Faruk Lawan committee.”

Following alleged irregularities observed in the subsidy regime, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison Maduekwe set up committees, including the one headed by the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu to investigate activities in the petroleum sector and report to her.

She had vowed that if any official in the petroleum sector was found to have been involved in illegal deal, such a person would be made to face the full wrath of the law.

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NNPC Refunds N45.7bn To Federation Account

Following the N250billion the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) owed the Federation Account, it has so far paid a total of N45.7billion, the Minister of State for Finance, Yerima Ngama, revealed yesterday.

NNPC owed the Federation Account the sum of N450billion in view of subsidy deductions, of which it agreed to pay N250 billion to States and local governments in 32 installments, while the remaining balance has been written off by the federal government.

Similarly, the minister who presided over the meeting of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee(FAAC) yesterday in Abuja, told journalists that a total of N614.004 billion was distributed among the three tiers of government for the month of January, 2012.

He informed that for last month, the NNPC paid N7.617billion into the Federation Account.

He said the distributable statutory revenue for the month was N368.186 billion which showed a decrease of N85.554 billion when compared to that of December 2011.

Going by the statutory allocation, the federal government would receive N260.187billion, the 36 States would share N131.970billion, while local governments would receive N101.744billion.

The balance of N60.249billion would be paid to the oil producing States based on the 13 per cent principles of derivation.

However, in addition to the N7.617billion paid by NNPC, the total revenue distributable for the current month, including value-added-tax was N614.004billion and this shows a decrease of N2.921billion compared to the amount shared in December, 2011.

In addition, the sum of N187.090billion was proposed as augmentation as a result of the shortfall in distributable revenue.

In his words:“What the NNPC is repaying is the portion that will go to the States and local governments. You know the federal government has its own share,States and local governments also have their own share.

“So when you take the share of federal and State governments and you spread it over 32 months, for the share of states and local governments, that amounted to repayment of N7.16billion every month.

The NNPC started payment in October, and the N7.16billion it paid last month is the sixth installment, so far, N45.700billion has been refunded by the corporation.”

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