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Lawmakers Demand Proof for NNPC’s N48bn Excess Expenditure

By on December 19, 2012

Andrew Yakubu, NNPC GMD

The N48bn excess expenditure by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in its 2012 operations has raised a lot of dust in the National Assembly.

The National Assembly Joint Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) yesterday queried the development and called on NNPC to clear the sir.

The committee is also demanding for information on undisclosed NNPC reserves, which it got money from to spend to the tune of N48bn.

The committee in its investigation discovered a discrepancy between what the committee earned as income and what was its operational expenditure for the year 2012.

Earlier the Chief Strategist of the NNPC, Dr. Tim Okon, said NNPC made a total of N2.36tn between January and September 2012 but said t spent N2.4tn as operational expenditure during the same period under review.

He said initially the company planned to refine 44million barrels in the three refineries but ended up refining 23million.

Adding, he disclosed that 445,000barrels per day planned was an accrual of the aggregate 162million barrels projected for 2012.

However, the committee discarded the budget presentation, saying that it was a premeditated move by the corporation to “deceive and confuse Nigerians” as well as the committee.

The committee however concluded that NNPC has failed to defend how it generated the revenue it generated and how it spent it.

The Chairman of the committee, Senator Magnus Abe spelt out what the committee expects from NNPC regarding the company’s income and expenditure profile for 2012.

He said, “We cannot go on to consider the 2013 budget unless we understand how you arrived at the total figures. Tell us what the sources of the revenues are and how the monies were spent.”

Senator Benedict Ayade had called on the committee to take note of the inconsistency in the NNPC’s income and expenses.

Reacting to the enquiries, Okon said, “The NNPC is a running business and it has reserves and we got the money from the reserves. However, he had earlier told the committee that he did not have the details with him.

“An audited account of the NNPC, You can wait until we have a full audited account and then know whether there is a budget deficit.”

NNPC Group Executive Director, Refining, and Petrochemicals, Philip Chukwu in attempt to explain the extra income and expenditure said NNPC used monies it got from other activities to fund the demands of the period in question.

He said, “There are proceeds from NNPC’s oil production activities. It also funds the work in the refineries from the profits coming from the revenue streams. That is why we have the higher operational expenses.”