By OKEY NDIRIBE & EMMAN OVUAKPORIE

ABUJA — The House of Representatives, yesterday, declared that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, was indebted to the Federal Government to the tune of  N142.7billion.

However,  the House Committee on Finance believes the oil corporation has not shown any intention of paying the debt.

This revelation was made yesterday by the Chairman of the House Committee on Finance,  Abdulmumin Jibrin, during an investigative hearing.

Jibrin further stated that the said amount was the corporation’s internally generated revenue (IGR) between 2009 and July 2012 that was supposed to have been remitted to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) as demanded by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007.

The Committee has  given the Group Managing Director (GMD) of NNPC Andrew Yakubu till next Tuesday, 19 March to appear before it or risk  a warrant of arrest being issued against him for the second time.

The Committee also summoned the Chief Executive of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company as well as all the  16 subsidiaries of the oil corporation to appear before it, in connection with their finances.

While giving details of how the country has been short-changed  by the NNPC and its 16 subsidiaries, Hon. Jibrin said the oil corporation was initially hostile to a technical committee set up by the House to examine its finances.

He said: “Our biggest challenge has been the NNPC, but as a Committee, we have resolved that whatever we have to do within the confines of the law, NNPC must be made to pay the money.

”We have said it before that NNPC has never remitted anything under her IGR to the CRF.  In 2009, the corporation  generated N2.048 trillion as its internally generated revenue.

”It made N2.155 trillion in 2010. While N1.9 trillion was realized in 2011 and  by July of 2012, the corporation made N259b as its IGR.

”Between 2009 and 2012, the corporation remitted nothing out of the N6,132,347,524,154 they generated as demanded by law”.

Hon. Jibrin however explained that in order to ensure that  what is due to the Federal Government was not lost to either fraud or inefficiency, the Committee set up a technical group to examine the books of the corporation and its 16 subsidiaries.

Said he: “On the first day, our members were shut out of the complex and refused access to the records up till this moment,  but we persisted and  eventually we were able to scrutinize the books through some other means where we found out that between them all, a profit of N98,360,658 was made,”.

He disclosed that from analysis, all the subsidiaries of the NNPC were posting profits except for seven  companies that included the three oil refineries. Said he: “From our calculations of 80 percent surplus, N78,688,558 is what the NNPC and its subsidiaries is supposed to pay to the CRF as backlog of IGR between 2009 and 2011.

”From it’s figures for 2012, the oil corporation is to pay N64b to government coffers.”

Hon. Jibrin further  stated that four subsidiary companies of the NNPC have their figures  denominated in dollars.  ”Their total profit for the period under review is $20b and they are supposed to remit $16b or 80 percent of their operating surplus.”

Another off-shore subsidiary, Duke Oil Service, UK made a profit of £107,545 and has to pay £86,036 as its IGR.

Said he: “We wrote NNPC  just like any other agency to appear and none of the other 20 agencies invited failed to show up except the NNPC. And from our records, all of them have started complying by paying what they owe the Federal government.

He asked:”When every agency concerned has started  paying, why is NNPC refusing to pay?

”Even if they claim to have other expenditures, the rules are clear, you have to remit a certain part of the surplus to the government and your expenditure must be within  confines of your own income.

”The answer is however obvious, the non-appearance of NNPC is not a surprise to the Committee because the facts and figures speak for themselves.

”But as a Committee, we will not allow this money to go; NNPC must pay this money because they have no reason why  it can not be paid.

”We are going to look at the records of all subsidiaries of NNPC independently and they are to appear before the Committee next Monday 18, March 2013.

”The Nigeria  Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG) company would also appear before us because during our investigation, we were told that it was not a wholly Federal government-owned company

”NLNG in 2009 declared a dividend  of N121billion and in 2010 declared N74b  but we were told that the money is with the Federal Ministry of Finance and we are yet to see this money in our records.

”The NLNG must appear because we are interested in its operations, revenues and remittances to government”.