Senate Committee on Finance has summoned the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to explain the details of an
undisclosed $500m revenue of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Ahmed Makarfi,
while presiding over a budget defence session with the Budget Office on
Thursday, drew the attention of its Director General, Mr. Bright Okogwu, to the
omissions in the revenue profile of the 2012-2015 Fiscal Framework.
Okogwu could not explain the actual revenue
expected from NPDC and why it was not included in the revenue profile when
asked by the committee to give details of the figures.
According to Okogwu, the NNPC is in a better
position to explain the details of the revenues and should be invited to
explain the details.
Makarfi said, “We are going to call NNPC to
clarify the figures because we ought to know what NPDC earns and keeps at least
for the purpose of disclosure.”
Okogwu however explained that the NNPC had an
agreement with Federal Government predating the current administration where it
was allowed to spend revenue accruals from NPDC to run its operation.
He said, “The understanding is that they need
money to run the organisation since provision was not made for them in the
annual budget.”
Senator Bukola Saraki, who is a member of the
committee, wondered why the Ministry of Finance could not ensure that the
earnings of the NPDC was captured in the revenue framework of the budget.
He said, “I think this idea contravenes the
constitutional provision that requires that all revenue must be paid into
government coffers.
“We must take a second look at this because we
are looking for money everywhere and such a huge item that could be up to half
a billion Dollars is not captured in the budget.”
The punch
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