The Senate had on Wednesday considered and adopted the report of its Committee on Public Accounts which probed the spendings of government agencies using the 2016 audit report.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation failed to account for oil delivery to Warri and Kaduna refineries amounting to N102billion, a report by the Nigerian Senate has revealed.
The Senate had on Wednesday considered and adopted the report of its Committee on Public Accounts which probed the spendings of government agencies using the 2016 audit report.
The report said in 2016, the NNPC delivered crude oil to Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company (WRPC) and Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company without details of what was delivered to the two firms.
The report, presented by Senator Matthew Urhoghide, said: “From the review and examination of domestic crude oil lifting sales profile presented for audit verification, it was noted that several deliveries were stated to be jointly lifted by or delivered to WRPC and Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company without necessary details or breakdown of what was delivered to respective companies.”
It said from the examination carried out, a total oil sales value of $376, 655,589 (N102.6bn) was stated to have been lifted jointly by these two companies.
“The failure to properly separate these deliveries and charge directly to each company makes it difficult to reconcile and account for each lifting,” the report added.
The senate adopted the recommendation of committee urging the head of the NNPC to provide specific details of crude delivered to the two refineries for audit.
Meanwhile, the Senate upheld the indictment of 37 MDAs for violation of financial procedure in their spendings.
It also resolved to submit the report on the indicted agencies to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of Federation for further action.
This is coming a few days after SaharaReporters reported how the Ogun State government dragged NNPC to court over unpaid tax liabilities running into N9 billion.
The state government also alleged that there was outright stealing by the staff of the defunct Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), who allegedly paid a total sum of N1 billion to its consultant, Messres Safaya, as part of the money she helped them to save on the tax refund demands by the Ogun State government.
Following the transition of the PPMC, there is the NNPC retail which is for filling station owners and retailers and NNPC trucking, which is for vessels tank farms and others.
However, the state government was surprised that nothing was paid to it, but NNPC paid itself to the tune of over a billion naira.
The court documents show that Messres Safaya was paid over N1 billion as 10 per cent consultancy fee but no document shows that the Ogun state government was paid a dime.
A staff member of the corporation who is not happy with the alleged fraud that was committed by the defunct staff members of the corporation cited many instances of direct stealing by the defunct staff of the corporation. The staff member laments that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is turning a blind eye to the “massive fraud going on in NNPC because most of the principal actors involved are their people”.
He alleged that most of the payments to the consultants are being shared by the management of the defunct PPMC.
He challenged the EFCC officials to look at the account of the consultants hired by the management of the PPMC and see how the money was distributed.
On how much he thought was paid to consultants from his office, he said he could say categorically that over N20 billion was stolen under the pretext of paying ghost consultants they hired.
However, Garba Deen Muhammad, Chief Corporate Communications Officer of NNPC denied the fraud, saying it did not have or deal with ghost consultants.
He added that at the commission, the process of engaging consultants whenever the need arises is clear and verifiable and follows global best practices.