NNPC Makes N2.36trn In 2012, Spends N2.84trn
THE Chief Strategist of the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC), Dr Tim Okon, has disclosed that the corporation made a
total of N2.3 trillion between January and September 2012, adding that its
total expenditure during the same period amounted to N2.84 trillion. He said this on Tuesday, during the 2012 budget
defence of the corporation before the Senate and House of Representatives Joint
Committee on Petroluem (Downstream), adding that the projected revenue for the
period was N4.02 trillion.
The National Assembly, however, raised the
alarm over the N48 billion excess expenditure made by the NNPC, saying its 2012
budget lacked details and full of discrepancies.Agitated by the vagueness of the documents presented in the review of the corporation’s performance in 2012, the joint committee spotted a discrepancy between what the corporation earned as income and its operational expenditure during the period under review.
Okon said the performance of the corporation between January and September was 59 per cent, while the full year performance is expected to be N3.23 trillion.
According to him, while the 2012 plan for the three refineries was for the refining of 44 million barrels, the corporation was only able to refine 23 million barrels out of a total annual allocation of 162 million barrels.
The joint committee of the National Assembly, however, rejected the presentation, saying that it was a deliberate attempt by the corporation to “deceive and confuse” Nigerians and the committee.
The committee said NNPC failed to supply the details of how it arrived at the revenues it made during the period and the details of how it spent what the claimed to have spent, just as one of its members, Senator Hosea Agboola, said “this is not a budget; a budget should contain details of revenues and expenditure.”
Chairman of the committee, Senator Magnus Abe, highlighted some of the expectations from the committee and demanded further details of the revenue profile and expenditure made in 2012.
The Group Executive Director, Refining and Petrochemicals, Philip Chukwu, made efforts to explain the source of the extra money that made up the corporation’s total expenditure, as he said the NNPC used some of the proceeds from its activities to fund other operational financial demands during the period.
The committee, however, faulted Chukwu’s position, saying that it contracted an earlier statement where he described NNPC “reserves” as crude oil and not in cash.
Source: Tribune
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