Missing $20bn: NNPC faults Sanusi’s latest claims

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has condemned the latest claims of the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the current Emir of Kano,

Muhammadu Sanusi II, that the issues surrounding the missing $20bn oil money have not been adequately addressed by the Federal Government.

Sanusi had told CNN’s Christine Amapour, during an interview on Wednesday that the level of corruption in Nigeria’s oil sector was still high.

Reacting to the claim, in a statement issued on Thursday by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the NNPC, Mr. Ohi Alegbe, the oil firm stated that the respected traditional ruler had got it wrong again.

It said one of the issues raised by Sanusi was the billions of dollars being paid in kerosene subsidies, stressing that after exhaustive deliberations and investigations, the Senate Committee on Finance in a report recommended that the Executive should prepare and present to the National Assembly a supplementary budget.

The budget, according to the corporation was “to cover the expenditure in the sum of N90.6bn for premium motor spirit subsidy in 2012 and N685.9bn for kerosene subsidy expended without appropriation by the National Assembly”

It said PricewaterhouseCoopers also observed in its recent forensic audit report that “regarding the issue of subsidy on kerosene, the Presidential Directive of 19 October, 2009, was not gazetted and there is no other legal instrument cancelling the subsidy on DPK. The Senate Committee had also concluded that all that was now required was for the FGN to propose appropriation for the unappropriated subsidy for the period in a supplemental budget.”

The statement further noted that the corporation was “therefore at a loss as to what Sanusi II meant by his statement that issues surrounding his allegation of unremitted $20bn, especially regarding kerosene subsidy, have not been adequately addressed.”