Despite a recommendation by a government-appointed auditor that it should refund $1.48 billion (about N248.6 billion Naira) to the federation account, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, insisted Wednesday that it was not indicted by the investigations carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The Group Managing Director, GMD, of the NNPC, Joseph Dawha, said the investigations carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers over the alleged missing $20 billion oil money, did not indict the corporation in anyway.
Mr. Dawha said the report “has clearly vindicated our long held position that the alleged unremitted crude oil revenue was a farce from day one”.
He said the $1.48billion the corporation was directed to refund was actually the balance of the book value of the divested assets transferred to NNPC upstream subsidiary, the NPDC, excluding 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 $1.48bn was not part of the alleged unremitted revenues from crude oil sales,” Mr. Dawha insisted.
According to him, what the DPR sent to the NNPC as the estimated value of the assets was $1.847billion, out of which over $300 million was paid as a token to indicate its commitment to acquiring the assets pending resolution and reconciliation by the two institutions.
