Probe Missing $2.1Billion, N3.1Trillion Subsidy Payments, Unremitted Funds By Nigerian Petroleum Company, NNPC Or Face Legal Action, SERAP Tells President TinubuSERAP asked the President to"set up a presidential panel of enquiry to promptly probe the grim allegations that US$2.1 billion and N3.1 trillion public funds of oil revenues and budgeted as fuel subsidy payments are missing and unaccounted for between 2016 and 2019, as documented by the Auditor-General of the Federation.
The organisation urged him to"name and shame anyone suspected to be responsible for the alleged widespread and systemic corruption in the use of oil revenues and the management of public funds budgeted as fuel subsidy and to ensure their effective prosecution as well as the full recovery of any proceeds of crime."
SERAP noted that removing fuel subsidy arbitrarily “without addressing outstanding accountability issues in the alleged mismanagement of oil revenues and fuel subsidy payments would amount to punishing poverty and further impoverishing the poor while letting high-profile officials and non-state actors get away with their crimes.
"The NNPC also failed to account for N4,572,844,962.25 of 'domestic gas receipts', thereby 'reducing the distributable revenue in the Federation account.' The Auditor-General wants the money remitted. "The Department of Petroleum Resources in 2019 also reportedly failed to remit US$1,278,364,595.49 in revenue to the Federation Account. The money was deducted by the NNPC from the Oil and Gas Royalty assessed by the DPR."The DPR in 2019 also deducted N19,840,081.29 as 'stamp duty' payments from contractors and consultants but the DPR instantly paid back the money to the contractors and consultants instead of remitting it to the treasury.