An area non-governmental accountability watchdog has dragged Nigerian Nationwide Petroleum Co. Ltd. (NNPC) to court docket accusing the nationwide oil and fuel firm of failing to remit billions of oil cash to the state.
The case by the Socioeconomic Rights and Accountability Challenge (SERAP) earlier than the Federal Excessive Court docket in Abuja relies on a 2020 report by Nigeria’s auditor-general about $2 billion and NGN164 billion ($102.2 million) lacking revenues, SERAP mentioned in a press launch Sunday. The case was filed Friday.
NNPC has not replied to a remark request emailed by Rigzone on Monday.
“The alleged lacking oil revenues replicate a failure of NNPCL accountability extra typically and are instantly linked to the establishment’s persevering with failure to uphold the rules of transparency and accountability”, learn the go well with partly, as quoted by SERAP.
“Had the NNPCL and its subsidiaries accounted for and remitted the disappeared public funds into the Federation Account, it’s probably that extra funds would have been allotted to the success of financial and social rights of Nigerians, equivalent to elevated spending on public items and providers… particularly on the time of price of dwelling disaster within the nation”, the go well with added.
“In keeping with the lately revealed 2020 audited report by the Auditor Basic of the Federation, the NNPC didn’t remit over USD$2 billion and N164 billion oil revenues into the Federation Account”, the go well with said.
“The Auditor-Basic fears that the cash might have been diverted into non-public pockets, denying the federal government the funding wanted to hold out its actions.
“The NNPCL reportedly failed and/or refused to remit N151,121,999,966 [$110.8 million]. The NNPCL with none justification deducted the cash from the oil royalties assessed for 2020 by the Division of Petroleum Sources now Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Fee”.
It additional detailed, “The NNPCL additionally didn’t remit USD$19,774,488.15 collected as authorities income into the Federation Account”.
“The Auditor-Basic needs the NNPCL to account for the cash, get well and remit it into the Federation Account, and handy over these suspected to be concerned to the ICPC and the EFCC”, the go well with mentioned, referring to the Unbiased Corrupt Practices and Different Associated Offences Fee and the Financial and Monetary Crimes Fee.
“The NNPCL additionally reportedly didn’t account for USD$2,021,411,877.47 and N13,313,565,786.49 [$9.8 million] of royalties collected from crude oil and fuel gross sales and fuel flare”, the go well with added.
“Regardless of the nation’s huge oil wealth, abnormal Nigerians have derived little or no profit from oil cash primarily due to widespread grand corruption, and the entrenched tradition of impunity of perpetrators”, SERAP mentioned within the go well with.
SERAP introduced its plan for authorized motion February. In a letter to NNPC chief government Mele Kolo Kyari, SERAP requested the NNPC boss “to call and disgrace these answerable for the disappeared oil cash, surcharge them for the total quantity concerned, and hand them over to applicable anticorruption businesses, as offered for beneath paragraph 3112(ii) of the Monetary Laws 2009, and really helpful by the Auditor-Basic”.
“We’d be grateful if the really helpful measures are taken inside 7 days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter”, the letter said, as quoted in a SERAP assertion February 18. “If we now have not heard from you by then, SERAP shall contemplate applicable authorized actions to compel the NNPCL to adjust to our requests within the public curiosity”.
Earlier this yr NNPC reported NGN 2.5 trillion ($1.8 billion) in earnings for the 16 months to December 2022. NNPC collected NGN 8.8 trillion ($6.5 billion) in income for the interval, whereas it owed NGN 344 billion ($252.2 million) in earnings tax, in keeping with the corporate’s report.
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