The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) under President Muhammadu Buhari failed to remit $4.2 billion to the government ...
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) under President Muhammadu Buhari failed to remit $4.2 billion to the government coffers in the second half of last year, the Natural Resource Governance Institute revealed.
According to the report by the New York-based watchdog, the NNPC made $6.3 billion from its crude oil sales in the second half of 2015, but only $2.1 billion was remitted into the government’s account.
It said some of the corporation’s withholdings cover known costs, but it has not fully explained other expenses.
“This was 12 percent higher than the withholdings under Goodluck Jonathan in 2013 and 2014,” authors Aaron Sayne and Alexandra Gillies said in the report, obtained by International Business Times.
“Corruption aside, allocating $4.2 billion in six months to NNPC expenses of unknown priority raises serious questions about fiscal responsibility.”
The report said it would be cheaper for the federal government to finance its record $30 billion budget for the 2016 fiscal year by reining in NNPC spending rather than through outside borrowing.
"The Finance Ministry has floated plans to fund this year’s appropriations with a further $5 billion in loans from the World Bank and other lenders. These lenders, along with Nigerian stakeholders, should ask hard questions about the blank check enjoyed by NNPC before giving a green light to new debt,” the authors warned in the report.
The new report which was published on Thursday, March 31, has called to question the war against corruption embarked upon by the Buhari administration.
