The
Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency
Initiative, NEITI, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed yesterday faulted claims by the
Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC) that the corporation did not connive with some Swiss oil dealers
to short change the country to the tune of $6.8 Billion.
Mrs
Ahmed also alleged that the sum of $22.8 billion was not disclosed by
NNPC in its audited financial statements through alternative funding
arrangement with its joint venture partners.
The NEITI Boss based her allegation on the 2009 2011 audited report of her organization.
According
to Ahmed, who testified before the House of Representatives joint
committees on Petroleum Resources, Upstream, Petroleum Resources
Downstream and Justice probing the allegation, the country lost N98.3
billion to NNPC in exchange rates compared to Central Bank of Nigeria,
CBN official exchange rate between the period.
She also insisted at the hearing Bernes revelation on NNPC was true.
Her claims on Bernes were further substantiated by her organization’s
Executive Secretary who said that “there is similarity in NEITI audit
report and the Bernes Declaration report”, stressing that, “the report
(Bernes Declaration report) has a lot of substance in it”.
Going
further, Ahmed also faulted the allocation of 445, 000 barrels per day
for local refineries through NNPC saying that, “the 445,000 barrels per
day allocation should be reviewed to the actual refining capacity of the
refineries”
Also testifying, the Managing Director of the
Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC), Mr Haruna Momoh told the
committee that Nigeria was not losing $8 billion annually through swap
arrangement of crude oil between NNPC and some foreign oil companies.
Ruling on the issues, the Committee Chairman, Honourable Ajibola Muraina adjourned the investigative hearing till March 25.
He
also mandated the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Director, Department
of Petroleum Resources, DPR, Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, Acting Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Executive
Secretary of Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA among
others to appear before the Committee on the date.
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