Forensic Audit Report: Oil Money Not Missing – NNPC

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The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Wednesday said that the report of the forensic audit carried out on its books by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) showed that no money was missing as alleged.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr Joseph Dawha, made this known at a news conference in Abuja, where he noted that the report absolved NNPC of culpability on all counts.

Commenting on the highlights of the PwC forensic audit report, Dawha expressed joy at the successful completion of the exercise.

“The report has clearly vindicated our long held position that the alleged unremitted crude oil revenue was a farce from day one,” he said, adding that the report had laid to rest the 15-month long controversy over the allegation of missing $49.8 billion.

On the issue of the outstanding 1.48 billion, he explained that the amount was the balance of the book value of the divested assets that were transferred to NNPC upstream subsidiary.

He further explained that the amount transferred to its subsidiary, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), excluded taxes and royalties.

“This does not constitute indictment; rather this value is still being reconciled with the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).

“It is pertinent to note that the 1.48 billion dollars is not part of the alleged unremitted revenues from crude oil sales,” Dawha.

He stated that the NNPC remitted 50.81billion out of a total of 69.34billion dollars, as backed by the report the audit, which considered the money remitted from Jan.1, 2012 to July 31, 2013.

Dawha also explained that though the forensic audit report recommended a review of the laws to stop NNPC from deducting its costs and expenses from crude oil sales proceeds, they were not illegal.

He therefore called on the media to eschew sensationalism and help disseminate the facts regarding the alleged missing money as contained in the reports of the various probes.

He also urged Nigerians to shun malicious reports linking the corporation with missing or unremitted oil revenue.