The Executive Secretary of NEITI , Waziri Adio , made the call in a statement signed by its spokesman , Dr Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, on Thursday.
According to him , the federal government should institute an independent investigation into NLNG dividends to NNPC from 2000 to 2014, amounting to $ 15. 82bn.
According to Adio , NEITI policy brief stated that “ since the Federation ’s shareholding in NLNG is held through NNPC , dividends are paid to NNPC , which should remit same to the Federation .
“ However, NEITI ’s audits have revealed that until 2015, NNPC failed to remit the interests and dividends from NLNG to the Federation Account , ’’ he said.
He said that the total outstanding dividends and loan repayments by NLNG to NNPC not remitted to the Federation account stood at over $15. 8 bn.
Adio said the payments were traced to NNPC accounts by its independent auditors but there was no trace of its remittance to the Federation Account as required by the Constitution .
On domestic crude allocation and management , Adio raised concerns that earnings from the daily allocation of 445 , 000 barrels for domestic use have not been properly accounted for .
“ First, the refineries have been operating at below full capacity for a long time and currently process less than 100 , 000 barrels per day.
“ Between January 2015 and September 2016, NNPC lifted a total of 245 .4 million barrels of crude oil for domestic use .
“ Out of this total, only 24. 7 million barrels were delivered to the refineries.
This represents a mere 10.06 percent of the total crude oil lifted for domestic use for that period .
“ The remainder of this allocation was exported through a variety of channels: 64.8 million barrels or 26.4 percent were exported directly; 97. 6 million barrels or 39.77per cent were sold under the Offshore Processing Agreements (OPA ).
“ And 58. 29 million barrels or 23.75 percent were sold under the Direct Sales – Direct Purchase (DSDP) scheme,’’ Adio said.
He noted that concerns raised in NEITI ’ s audits by other stakeholders about the inefficiency of these arrangements, especially the OPA , led to the discontinuation of the OPA in April 2016.
However, “ NEITI audits have shown that earnings from transactions arising from domestic crude allocation have not been fully remitted to the country ’s treasury.
“ Between January 2012 and July 2013, total revenue for domestic crude sales was $ 28.2 bn but NNPC only remitted $14. 54bn .’’
While calling for measures to recover over $ 14.5 m so far disclosed in its reports , Adio called for an urgent review of this arrangement to avoid huge revenue loss and leakages .
(NAN )
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