Information emerging from the Chief Strategist of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Tim Okon, has revealed that the corporation made a total of N2.3 trillion between January and September 2012, adding that its total expenditure during the same period amounted to N2.84 trillion.
Okon said this on Tuesday, during the 2012 budget defence of the corporation before the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committee on Petroluem (Downstream), adding that the projected revenue for the period was N4.02 trillion. The National Assembly, however, raised the alarm over the N48 billion excess expenditure made by the NNPC, saying its 2012 budget lacked details and full of discrepancies.
According to Okon, the performance of the corporation between January and September was 59 per cent, while the full year performance is expected to be N3.23 trillion. He noted that while the 2012 plan for the three refineries was for the refining of 44 million barrels, the corporation was only able to refine 23 million barrels out of a total annual allocation of 162 million barrels.
Worried about the vagueness of the documents presented in the review of the corporation’s performance in 2012, the joint committee spotted a discrepancy between what the corporation earned as income and its operational expenditure during the period under review. The joint committee of the National Assembly, however, rejected the presentation, saying that it was a deliberate attempt by the corporation to “deceive and confuse” Nigerians and the committee.
