REPORT: 107.2m barrels of crude missing- Auditor-General

 

The defunct Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) now NNPC Limited failed to account for about 107,239,436 barrels of crude oil lifted for domestic consumption in 2019, the report of the Auditor-General for the Federation has indicated.

It also stated that records from performance report of two depots indicated that about 22,929.84 litres of PMS worth N7.06 billion pumped to the two depots (Ibadan-Ilorin and Aba-Enugu) between June and July 2019 were not received by them.

The revelation forms part of six audit queries from the Auditor-General for the Federation contained in the Federal Government’s Consolidated Financial Statements for the year ended December 31, 2019 submitted to the Clerk to the National Assembly via a letter dated August 18, last year and signed by the Auditor-General, Adolphus Aghughu.

The report identified discrepancies between the amount reported by the NNPC as transfer to the Federation Account and what was reported by the Accountant-General of the Federation.

It said while the NNPC records showed that N1,272,606,864,000 was transferred by the corporation, the amount recorded by the Accountant-General of the Federation was N608,710,292,773.44, showing a discrepancy of N663,896,567,227.58.

THe AuGF said the Group Managing Director of the NNPC should be asked to explain the discrepancy between the two figures and remit the balance of N663,896,567,227.58 to the Federation Account or face sanction.

The report also said N519,922,433,918.46 was transferred to the Federation Account by the NNPC based on transfer mandates, while demanding that the company provide “reconciliation statement for the difference of N88,787,862,853.96 between AGF’s figure of N608,710,296,772.42 and NNPC’s figure per transfer mandate ofN519,922,433,918.46”.

It said: “Audit observed that 107,239,436.00 barrels of crude oil were lifted as domestic crude, while allocation of crude oil to refineries for a billing date of January 9 to May 29, 2019 was 2,764,267.00 bbls valued at N55,891,009,960.63.”

It said further: “Information on Sale of Un-Utilised Crude oil by Refineries for 2019 was not provided, and information on crude oil allocations from 30th May 30 to December 31, 2019 was not provided for scrutiny.”

While alleging possible diversion of domestic crude, diversion of sale of un-utilised crude as well as possible loss of Federation Account revenue, the report said the management of the NNPC failed to respond to the audit query.

The report said: “the Group Managing Director of NNPC is requested to peovide the complete schedule of allocation of Crude Oil to Refineries from 1st January to 31st December, 2019, Furnish details of sale of un-utilized crude oil and reconcile it with total domestic crude oil of 107,239,436.00 bbls lifted in 2019 and remit amount realised from sale of un-utilized crude oil to the Federation Account.”

 

The report said further that section 162(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) states “The Federation shall maintain a special account to be called “the Federation Account” into which shall be paid all revenues collected by the Government of the Federation, except the proceeds of the personal income tax of the personnel of the armed forces of the Federation, the Nigeria Police Force, the Ministry or department charged with the responsibility of Foreign Affairs and the residents of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja”.

 

It said in spite of this provisions, the NNPC spent US$6.410 million, (=N1.955 trillion at N305/US$1) to fund Joint Venture Cash Calls (JVCC) and other federally funded upstream projects such as Gas Infrastructure Development, Brass LNG, Crude Oil PreExport Inspection Agency Expenses, Frontier Exploration Services, EGTL Operating Expenses and NESS Fee and another N55.157billion on Pipeline Security and Maintenance without first paying the money into to the federations account.

 

The AuGF said the Group Managing Director of NNPC should justify non adherence to the transfer of all federation revenue to the federation account as provided by the Constitution and ensure that all revenue is paid into the federation account going forward.

 

The report also said that “the Audit examination on ‘Schedule of Inflow of Revenue’ by NNPC to Federation

 

Account obtained from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation revealed that the Domestic Gas Receipts of N4.572 billion was transferred to Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT)-Gas in the month of January 2019, and was not made in the subsequent months of the year.

 

“This transfer reduced the amount due to Federation Account for the month of January, 2019 to the tune of N4.572 billion” leading to possible “reduction of distributable revenue in the Federation account, misapplication of fund and diversion of revenue”.

 

It said that about 22,929.84 litres of PMS valued N7,056,137,180.00 pumped to two depots in the country in 2019 were not received by the depots while no reason was advanced by the agency for the non-receipt of the product, demanding that the value of the products be remitted to the Federation Account.

 

It said further that a total 239,800 bbls of crude oil valued at N5.498 billion was received in Warri and Kaduna refineries respectively between January and December 2019 with the source of the crude not validated due to absence of source documents, while money was allegedly classified as crude oil losses without duely completed form 146 to be processed for further investigation.