The Chairman, Finance Commissioners Forum, Mr Timothy Odah, said the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) accepted that it owe the Federation Account.
Odah, the Commissioner for Finance in
Ebonyi, made the revelation in Abuja when he briefed newsmen on the
outcome of Friday’s monthly Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC)
meeting.
He said the NNPC representative at the
meeting admitted that the organisation owed the federation, and
acknowledged not remitting the exact amount it generated.
The governor of Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN) wrote a letter to the president, that NNPC failed to remit 49.8
billion U.S dollars to the Federation Account between 2012 to date.
Odah, however, said the actual amount of its indebtedness would be determined at the next FAAC meeting.
“The NNPC has admitted that truly they
owe the Federation Account and by that information, we referred the
deliberation on the figure of what they say they owe to the next FAAC
meeting.
“This is so that the technical committee
will be able to examine NNPC accounts before we will be able to
publicise or accept the figure they have quoted,’’ he said.
Odah said the NNPC’s acknowledgment of
its indebtedness to the Federation Account over revenue it had failed to
remit was “important’’ and described it as a welcome development.
“You know previously that it has always been a matter of controversy.
“They say they don’t owe and sometimes
they will say that it is the federation account that owes them, but this
time they have accepted that they owe.
“Although, the difference between what we claim they owe and what they claim they owe, is very marginal,’’ he said.
Odah also said the FAAC technical
sub-committee would begin to work on measures to further scrutinise
remittances by the NNPC in order to avoid such occurrences in future.
No comments:
Post a Comment