ON NNPC REFUND OF $1.48BILLION INTO THE FEDERATION ACCOUNT – WHY NOW?
By Zik Gbemre
With recent reports revealing that the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has disclosed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has started refunding $1.48bn into the Federation Account as recommended by an audit firm, PriceWaterHouse Coopers (PWC), we cannot help but wonder how come it is now that the opposition has won the Presidential election with Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd) emerging as President-Elect, that the NNPC under the leadership of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, is refunding money into the Federation Account? What were they doing all these while with the said amount of money meant to be refunded back to the Federation Account? Why were they holding on to such huge amount of money meant for the Federation account?
Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, Nigeria’s Minister of Petroleum Resources.
It is appalling and rather unfortunate that it had to take an independent audit firm to expose and recommend the NNPC to out rightly return the said amount of money to the Federation Account. PriceWaterHouse Coopers (PWC) had in its forensic audit report of the corporation recommended that the NNPC should refund the amount to the Federation Account. The firm was last year hired to carry out the audit following an allegation by the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Lamido Sanusi, that $20bn was not remitted to the Federation Account by the NNPC. We can recall the denials and counter-allegations that followed that revelation by the former CBN Governor when it was made. Now they are coming out, after an independent audit exposed their misdeeds, to refund part of the said money.
PWC had stated in the report that while the total gross revenue generated from crude oil lifting was $69.34bn between January 2012 and July 2013 and not $67bn as earlier stated by the Senate Reconciliation Committee, what was remitted to the Federation Account was $50.81bn and not $47bn. The audit report revealed that $28.22bn was the value of domestic crude oil allocated to the NNPC, adding that total amount spent on subsidy for Premium Motor Spirit was $5.32bn. Though, Alison-Madueke explained that the unremitted fund was owed by NPDC for a block that had been assigned from NNPC to NPDC, the question is why wait for an audit firm to recommend that the money should be returned? Why hold on to the said amount meant for the Federation Account all this while, even after the former CBN Governor Lamido Sanusi, now Emir of Kano had stated that the NNPC still has money it needed to remit to the Federation Account?
Though the Minister of Petroleum Resources Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke did not disclose how much has so far been refunded by the corporation, however we cannot help but ask if the said amount is all there is that actually needs to be refunded by the NNPC. The Petroleum Minister also denied reports that she was seeking the assistance of some highly-placed persons in other to get soft landing from the incoming administration of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd.).
From what we can deduce, it is obvious that the Minister and the NNPC were banking on the fact that the PDP-led Government under President Goodluck Jonathan would continue with the next government after the Presidential polls, and such, it will be business as usual for them to allow things remain the way they were. But now that the table has turned, with an obviously “no-nonsense”
We cannot help but ask: was Alison-Madueke thinking that she would remain the Minister for Petroleum Resources in the next government and for life? Why would somebody of her status and reputation, who has worked in a reputable International Oil Company like Shell (SPDC) be so unaccountable to the Nigerian people? How come she has been ‘untouchable’ all these years despite the mind-boggling allegations on her head over juicy oil block deals that were shrouded in secrecy and how the oil and gas sector has been on reverse gear since she came on board as Petroleum Minister? Why should Alison-Madueke be running the NNPC Account and that of its subsidiaries as if they were her own family accounts?
It is really sad that the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, and other government officials like her in the soon-to-be-outgoing PDP-led Government, have not learnt from the celebrated corruption case of the former Governor of Delta State James Ibori. If they have, they would not be acting the way they have acting in the last few years. That is, running public office as if they are running their private businesses. We are however glad that the new Government to be led by Buhari will turn things around in the interest of the common masses. As we can see, his emergence as President-Elect is already shaking things up in every sector of the polity. It is so because Buhari is known as a well-disciplined and princip
Observers in the county’s oil and gas industry have blamed the deplorable state of the industry on ‘poor leadership’ at the topmost level of the nation’s petroleum industry and lack of policy clarity, especially in the last three to four years, which incidentally coincides with the administration of current Petroleum Resources Minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, who was appointed to the Petroleum portfolio in April 2010. While leadership at the highest level of the oil and gas sector has been largely poor, the quality of advice flowing from the supervisors and regulators in the industry to the Presidency has also been suspect; accounting perhaps for the Presidency going along with some untoward events in the sector, rather than wield the big stick.
Within the last three to four years, according to industry observers, several key projects, being pursued by IOCs have become stalled. Some of the projects, which had been in the pipeline for more than five years, have suffered delayed take-off, poor-funding, while others are still awaiting belated approvals as the NNPC, dilly-dallied on them. Some have been outrightly abandoned by the IOCs and indigenous Oil Companies in frustration over what observers describe as “NNPC’s apathy towards the very important ventures”.
One of such projects in the industry that has been suffering due to poor funding is the Utorogu NAG-2 Condensate Tank Farm Project, which has been left abandoned since Shell (SPDC) Divestment and exit from Delta State. The importance of the Utorogu NAG 2 Condensate Tank Farm Project cannot be overemphasized. But despite the fact that the entire Project has been planned and money spent already by Shell (SPDC) in the acquisition of the said Project site from Iwhrekan Community in Ughelli South LGA Delta State, and the Project was even sand-filled/piled and other civil works executed, however, the project has been abandoned due to funding, as no work activities have taken place on the project site in a long time.
According to an industry observer; with Nigeria losing revenue and investments from uncertainties over the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) passage, and given the rising incidence of crude oil theft and illegal bunkering as well as insecurity, the country’s oil and gas sector is slipping into the situation which took Mexico about 50 years to recover from when it faced similar challenges in its oil industry. The bottom line is that we are where we are today in the country’s oil and gas industry due to the actions/inactions, policy execution and practices of the Petroleum Ministry, especially in the last three to four years or so.
Zik Gbemre,JP.
National Coordinator
Niger Delta Peace Coalition (NDPC)
No.28, Opi Street, Ugboroke Layout, Effurun-Warri,
P.O. Box 2254, Warri, Delta State, Nigeria.
Tel: +2348026428271
+2348052106013
Website: www.ndpc-zik.org
