According to the report, the cumulative amount withheld from the Federation Account by NNPC as at January 1, 2015 stood at N3.234 trillion, with another N67.556 billion withheld in February 2015.Besides, it said throughout the year, remittances totaling N13.907 billion were recorded in February and April.
The report, which formed part of the submissions in the 2015 Annual Audit Report of the Federal Government Account by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF), requested the Group Managing Director of the NNPC to explain why the N3.878 trillion was not remitted to the Federation Account.
The AuGF also ordered the corporation to henceforth remit all revenues due to the Federation Account accordingly and evidence of such remittances tendered to his office.
Spokesman of the NNPC, Ndu Ughamadu, told INDEPENDENT that though he has not read the report, the NNPC in recent time has made transparency its watchword.
He said the agency has also maintained a clean book which explains why the FAAC recently commended the corporation over its accountability and transparency when the latter’s top echelon visited the former’s group managing director recently.He indicated that NNPC is also well represented in FAAC and has always thrown its doors open to the agency.
The report further revealed that a total revenue inflows to the Federation Account from the various collecting agencies for the year amounted to N6.001 trillion.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) component statements in the FAAC records showed that the NNPC collected about N2.44 trillion for the year; and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), N608.083 billion.
However, the report noted that the NNPC had deducted about N865.448 billion as its Joint Venture Cash Call for the year, before transferring the balance of N1.577 trillion into the Federation Account.
Another N51.3 billion was deducted by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and DPR from their total revenue collections for the year and transferred into the Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) and Royalty Account, while the balance was remitted to the Federation Account.
The Nigerian Customs Service (NSC) revenue, consisting collections from import and excise duties, fees, penalty charges, Common External Tariff (CET) levy and auction sales, was swept into the Federation Account.
But, the report frowned at NNPC’s deduction from its revenues, describing it as contrary to the provisions of Section 162(1) of the 1999 constitution, which makes it mandatory for all revenue proceeds to be paid to the Federation Account.
“This had been a regular subject of Auditor General’s previous years’ reports without any positive response from NNPC management,” the report noted.
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