CBN Governor Exposes $50bn Fraud By NNPC

Governor of Central Bank, Mallam Sanusi Lamido
Sanusi has revealed the corruption in the nation's oil
sector, especially the non-remmittance of about $50b
oil income to the national account by the NNPC.
The $50 billion was accumulated between 2012 and
2013.
Sahara Reporters reports that the Governor of the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi
in a letter dated 25 September complained to
President Goodluck Jonathan about the continuing
refusal of the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) to honour its legal obligations,
including failure to remit $49.8 billion to the
Federation Account between 2012 and 2013. That
amount represents 76% of the value of crude oil
liftings during the period.
In a similar vein, Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi
Amaechi recently asked the federal government to
tell Nigerians how $5 billion got missing from the
Excess Crude Account, an allegation denied by the
Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who said
there was no such money missing from the Excess
Crude Account.
"Our analysis of the value of crude oil export
proceeds based on the documentation received from
pre-shipment inspectors shows that between January
2012 and July 2013, NNPC lifted 594,024,107 barrels
of crude valued at $65,332,350,514.57," the letter
said. "Out of this amount, NNPC repatriated only $
15,528,410,098.77 representing 24 per cent of the
value. This means the NNPC is yet to account for, and
repatriate to the Federation Account, an amount in
excess of $49.804 billion of the value of oil lifted in
the same period," governors under the platform of
the All Progressives Congress also noted.
Drawing attention to an attached table of analysis of
the crude oil liftings and repatriations as prepared by
the CBN, Governor Sanusi noted that the failure of
the NNPC to repatriate the amounts constitutes not
only a violation of constitutional provisions but also
of both Nigeria's foreign exchange and pre-shipment
inspection of exports laws.
Also drawing attention to previous occasion in which
he had expressed concern about what appeared to be
shortfalls in remittances to the Federation Account in
spite of the strong recovery in the price of oil, Mr.
Sanusi said that a point of departure ought to be to
insist that the NNPC account fully for all proceeds
that were diverted from its accounts with the CBN
and the Federation Account.
"As an indicator of how bad this situation has
become, please note that in 2012 alone, the
Federation Account received $28.51 billion in
Petroleum Profits and related taxes but only $10.13
from crude oil proceeds," Sanusi informed Mr.
Jonathan.
"In the period January-July 2013, the corresponding
figures are $16.65 billion and $5.39 billion,
respectively. This means, Your Excellency, that in the
first seven months of the year, taxes accounted for
76% of the total inflow from this sector, while NNPC
crude oil proceeds accounted for only 24%."
According to SaharaReporters, Mr. Sanusi specifically
recommended to the President to:
- Require NNPC to provide evidence for disposal of all
proceeds of crude sales diverted from the CBN and
Federation Account;
- Investigate crude oil lifting and swap contracts, as
well as the financial transactions of counter-parties
for equity, fairness and transparency; and
- Authorise prosecution of suspects in money-
laundering transactions, including but not limited to
BDCs who are unable to account for hundreds of
millions of dollars.