It claimed the corporation is holding onto N142 billion unremitted funds.
Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Rep. Abdulmumin Jibrin, said the NNPC made N6 trillion between 2009 and 2012 as IGR, but refused to remit the N142 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) as stipulated by the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) 2007.
Four senior officials of the corporation led by the Group Executive Director (Finance), Bernard Otti stood in for the Group Managing Director (GMD), Andrew Yakubu, unlike in March when heads of all the subsidiaries, except GMD appeared before the Committee, but refused to make individual presentations. Neither the GMD nor the heads of the subsidiaries appeared yesterday.
“This exercise is not about the NNPC, but the subsidiaries that are generating the revenue and have been making profit. Out of the 17 subsidiaries, it is only five that have not been making profit and we want to know how the profit of the others are being spent, since the NNPC has been saying that it has never operated on surplus,” Jibrin said.
He regretted the time-wasting tactics of the corporation, which he said is delaying the conclusion of the report of the committee’s investigation into the matter.
“Unfortunately this delay is affecting the submission of the report of this investigation. We investigated 60 agencies and all of them have responded. It is only the NNPC that is remaining… We can decide to request for information even from a unit within the NNPC and they must oblige as stipulated by the constitution,” he disclosed.
“The subsidiaries ought to be given the opportunity to make their own case since many of them have been making profit while the parent body has been presenting contrary reports for years. Nigerians even need to know the workings of the NNPC and all we are doing is to see how we can assist the corporation in blocking all leakages so that the revenue base of the government can be lifted.”
The committee mandated the management of the NNPC to appear before it with the 17 subsidiaries next Tuesday