NNPC Can’t Account For N500bn Subsidy Fund - Senate

The Senate on Tuesday lamented that officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation failed to honour its invitation to give account of how they managed the N32.00 removed as subsidy on each of the litre of petrol sold in the country between January 2012 and September 2013 Members of the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme raised the alarm while addressing journalists, two hours after officials of the NNPC and the Central Bank of Nigeria failed to honour an appointment with them. A member of the committee, Senator Kabiru Mararaba, alleged that his colleagues observed that over N800bn ought to have accrued to the nation for the SURE - P projects if N32.00 was removed from each of the 25 billion litres of fuel sold in 21 months. He said the figure was contained in a letter from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources to the committee dated October 9 this year, and signed by its Director of Finance and Accounts, Mr. Salmanu Faskari. He said,"The committee had earlier written the NNPC to ascertain the quantity of fuel sold from when the Subsidy programme started till date. NNPC gave us the quantity sold from January 2012 and September 2013, covering 21 months. "If you add everything together, it will amount to about 25 billion litres and if you multiply 25 billion litre by N32.00, you get about N800bn. What SURE - P coordinators told us, when they appeared before us, was that they had so far collected about N300bn since the subsidy regime started. "The SURE - P team led by Mr. Christopher Kolade, said they were receiving N15bn flat rate every month. If you multiply 21 months by N15bn, it will be about N350bn. What we are even asking is what happened to the over N500bn difference. That is what we ask the NNPC to come and tell us. "We were also disappointed that the CBN was not here because they are the custodian of the fund. They should come account for how they came about the N15bn they were remitting every month when it was not the same quantity of fuel they sell every month. "The figure cannot be a flat rate. Based on the figure which the ministry supplied, in January this year, the nation consumed about 1.3bn litre of petrol but it had dropped to 770, 695, 645 in September 2013."