Missing $1.48bn Under Reconciliation With DPR – NNPC

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said the outstanding $1.48 billion reported in the forensic audit carried out on the corporation by the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is still being reconciled with the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).

This is even as the corporation insisted that the $1.48 billion was not part of the alleged unremitted revenues from crude oil sales, reiterating its position that the report of the forensic audit did not indict the NNPC in anyway but rather absolved it of any culpability on all counts.

This was restated yesterday by the group managing director (GMD) of the NNPC, Dr Joseph Dawha, at a press conference in Abuja where he expressed satisfaction at the successful completion of the forensic audit exercise which he noted has laid to rest the 15-month long controversy over the allegation of the missing $49.8 billion levelled against the corporation by the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.

On the outstanding $1.48 billion, the GMD explained that the amount was actually the balance of the book value of the divested assets that were transferred to the NNPC upstream subsidiary, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), excluding taxes and royalties.

“This does not constitute indictment; rather this value is still being reconciled with the Department of Petroleum Resources. It is pertinent to note that the $1.48 billion was not part of the alleged unremitted revenues from crude oil sales,” he insisted.

Explaining further, the GMD stated that what the DPR sent to the NNPC as the estimated value of the assets was $1.847 billion out of which the corporation paid over $300 million as a token to indicate its commitment to acquiring the assets pending resolution and reconciliation by the NNPC and DPR. He added that it was working closely with the DPR to defray the amount as soon as possible.

He also pointed out that the the PwC audit had acknowledged its longstanding stance that a total of $50.81 billion had been remitted to the Federation Account as proceeds from crude oil sales within the period under review as against claims of $47 billion. (Leadership)