THE
Senate, on Tuesday, disclosed that both the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should be held
accountable for a missing N500 billion, being part of the over N800
billion acruable from oil subsidy removal between January 2012 and
September 2013.This was as its ad hoc committee on Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) said NNPC sold 25 billion litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), known as petrol, between January 2012 and September 2013.
The committee also lamented the failure of the NNPC officials to honour its invitation to give account of how they managed the N32 removed as subsidy on each litre of petrol sold in the country between the period.
Members of the Senate ad hoc committee on SURE-P disclosed this on Tuesday, while speaking with newsmen, more than two hours after they were kept waiting by both the NNPC and CBN officials.
The committee had invited the NNPC Group Managing Director, Mr Andrew Yakubu and the CBN governor, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, to appear before it over disbursement to SURE-P.
A member of the committee, Senator Kabiru Marafa, alleged that his colleagues observed that over N800 billion ought to have acrued to the country for the SURE-P, if N32 was removed from the 25 billion litres of fuel sold in 21 months.
The senator supported his assertion with a documentary evidence from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, dated October 9, 2013 and signed by its Director, Finance and Accounts, Mr Salmanu Saminu Faskari.
He said “this committee wrote to the relevant organisations that benefit from this SURE-P programme when it was inaugurated.
“It was said that the subsidy regime was going to be N32 a litre and this committee wrote the NNPC to ascertain the quantity of fuel being imported from the time this subsidy programme started.
“NNPC replied the committee that from January 2012 to December 2013 which, if you calculate, it will give about 21 months, they gave a breakdown of the quantity per month.
“When you put up everything, it comes to roughly about 25 billion litres per month. Now, if you multiply 25 billion by 32, you get about N800 billion.
“SURE-P told us when they came here, when we invited them, that they collected about N300 billion at N15 billion flat rate per month.
“So if you multiply 21 month by N15 billion, you will get about N315 billion. So what we are talking about is the amount involved, which is 500 billion. Where is it?
“That is what we wanted NNPC to tell us. They are the ones importing the fuel; they are the custodian.
“I was surprised that CBN was not here because they are the custodian of the money. But if for anything, if their top management was here, the question of how they came about the N15 billion they are remitting to SURE-P would have been asked.
“Since CBN are the custodians of the money, so how did CBN come about remitting to SURE-P? Then, we will be told.
“Maybe, CBN will tell us this is what NNPC is remitting to them; maybe NNPC will say no, ‘we have been remitting this amount of money, but CBN is remitting on N15 billion.’
“Then we will ask CBN, ‘how did you come about the N15 billion flat rate?’ This is because this thing can’t be a flat rate.
“In January 2012, the nation consumed about 1.3 billion litres, but if you look at February 2013, we consumed about 941 billion litres.
“So you can see that the remittances are supposed to be fluctuating, but when SURE-P came, they told the committee that they have been receiving N15 billion monthly. So how did they come about it?”
The chairman of the Senate ad hoc committee, Senator Abdul Ningi, lamented the failure of the NNPC and CBN top executives to appear before it and threatened to use all legitimate means to bring the affected officials before his members.
“We are asking legitimate questions about how they arrive at their expenditures and estimates. We must be able to arrive at a conclusion whether they should scrap this programme or not, but neither the NNPC nor the CBN officials cared to attend.
“Personally, I have never seen this level of gross impunity and disregard for constituted authority. Today, we are once again confronted by the forces of anti-democracy; people who unfortunately do not understand that this kind of system provides the executive, the legislature and the judiciary what makes our democracy different from military regime.
“I have been a member of the National Assembly right from inception and I have never seen this level of crass impunity and disregard for constituted authority.
“I have no doubt in my mind that the non-appearance today further confirms the fears and reservations of a lot of Nigerians on the secrecy of the implementation of the SURE-P and part of our mandate is to unbundle and open up the details of the implementation of the programme.
“Our intention was to make it plain to Nigerians that no one is hiding anything,” he said.
Another member of the committee, Senator Ganiyu Solomon, asked the SURE-P management to account for the sum of N93 billion, being the outstanding amount yet to be spent out of the N300 billion release to it to so far.
However, while Ningi was addressing newsmen, a three-member delegation, led by a deputy director, from CBN walked in.
Explanations offered by the delegation for the failure of its governor to honour the invitation fell on deaf ears, as Ningi angrily told them that the senators were better than most of the officials.
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