The National Economic Council (NEC), yesterday said the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other revenue generating agencies in the country, have short-changed the government to the tune of $21 billion and N526 billion between 2010 and 2015.
Addressing State House correspondents at the end of the council meeting in Abuja, Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe state, said the figures were contained in a report of the forensic audit carried out by KPMG on behalf of the council. He said: “KPMG presented the report of the technical audit of RGAs, concluding that a total sum of N526 billion and USD$21 billion was under-paid to the Federation Account. NEC’s Ad-hoc Committee chaired by Gombe state Governor with members including governors of Edo, Kaduna, Akwa Ibom, Lagos and the Finance Minister, recommended refund of the amounts under-paid.
“Council adopted the presentations and reports of the KPMG and the recommendations of its Ad-hoc Committee, including a resolution to identify instances where there appears to have been criminal infringements and forward such to the AttorneyGeneral of the Federation and the Legal Committee of the National Economic Council for further action.”
The governor said, the council resolved to pursue strengthening of the NNPC governance structure to prevent further recurrence of such gross underremittance by the NNPC and other agencies. The council also resolved to extend the forensic audit to cover June 2017 in order to make it more comprehensive. “One of the resolutions of NEC today is to extend the audit to June 2017. So the audit will continue for the remaining agencies.
It is NNOC, NPDC, DPR, Customs, Federal Internal Revenue Services, NPA, Maritime Authorities, all the revenue generating agencies and the details of the infringement are contained in the report. Because it is voluminous report, there are a lot of items that are there. “The most important decision that was taken is that a subcommittee will be set up which will be an arm of the legal committee of NEC that will look into details of these kinds of infringements and make sure that those issues that are criminal and require prosecution will be handled by office of the Attorney General of the Federation.
