According to Sahara Reporters, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) complained to President Goodluck Jonathan about the continuing refusal of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to honour its legal obligations, including failure to remit $49.8 billion to the Federation Account between 2012 and 2013. That amount represents 76% of the value of crude oil liftings during the period.
The CBN complaints are
contained in a letter to the President dated 25 September 2013.
“Our analysis of the
value of crude oil export proceeds based on the documentation received from
pre-shipment inspectors shows that between January 2012 and July 2013, NNPC
lifted 594,024,107 barrels of crude valued at $65,332,350,514.57,” the letter
said. “Out of this amount, NNPC repatriated only $15,528,410,098.77
representing 24% of the value. This means the NNPC is yet to account for,
and repatriate to the Federation Account, an amount in excess of $49.804
billion of the value of oil lifted in the same period.”
Drawing attention to an
attached table of analysis of the crude oil liftings and repatriations as
prepared by the CBN, Governor Sanusi noted that the failure of the NNPC to
repatriate the amounts constitutes not only a violation of constitutional
provisions but also of both Nigeria’s foreign exchange and pre-shipment
inspection of exports laws.
Also drawing attention
to previous occasion in which he had expressed concern about what appeared to
be shortfalls in remittances to the Federation Account in spite of the strong
recovery in the price of oil, Mr. Sanusi said that a point of departure ought
to be to insist that the NNPC account fully for all proceeds that were diverted
from its accounts with the CBN and the Federation Account.
“As an indicator of how
bad this situation has become, please note that in 2012 alone, the Federation
Account received $28.51 billion in Petroleum Profits and related taxes but only
$1013 from crude oil proceeds,” he informed Mr. Jonathan. “In the period
January-July 2013, the corresponding figures are $16.65 billion and $5.39
billion, respectively. This means, Your Excellency, that in the first
seven months of the year, taxes accounted for 76% of the total inflow from this
sector, while NNPC crude oil proceeds accounted for only 24%.”
Mr. Sanusi specifically
recommended to the President to:
- Require NNPC to
provide evidence for disposal of all proceeds of crude sales diverted from
the CBN and Federation Account;
- Investigate crude
oil lifting and swap contracts, as well as the financial transactions of
counter-parties for equity, fairness and transparency; and
- Authorise
prosecution of suspects in money-laundering transactions, including but
not limited to BDCs who are unable to account for hundreds of millions of
dollars.
It is unclear if Mr.
Jonathan has read the letter. Despite claims of fighting corruption, he
does not normally take any anti-corruption action against members of his
cabinet or implement any reports, and NNPC is famously supervised by Petroleum
Resources Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke, one of his closest confidantes
within the cabinet.
Source; Saharareporters
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