By Olawale Lamina
The Federal Government has concluded plans to engage an external auditor to situate the N2.7tn fuel subsidy claim by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL.
The unnamed auditor is expected to assist the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation in determining the real amount owed by the government.
This was the fallout of the postponement of the plan five months ago when the idea first came up during the the monthly Federation Allocation Accounts Committee meeting in April 2024.
NNPC claimed an outstanding of N6tn but was reduced to N2.7tn after an initial audit by an audit firm, KPMG.
The NNPC Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, had told journalists that the Federal Government still owed the firm the sum of N2.8tn spent on petrol subsidy, this was hours after President Tinubu declared that the era of subsidy is gone in the country, upon his swearing in ceremony at the Eagles Square on May 30,2023.
The NNPC boss had claimed that the corporation paid the bills from its cash flow, adding that government had been unable to pay back the N2.8tn.
“Since the provision of the N6tn in 2022 and N3.7tn in 2023, we have not received any payment from the Federation.
“That means they (the Federal Government) are unable to pay and we’ve continued to support this subsidy from the cash flow of the NNPC. We are waiting for them to settle up to N2.8tn of NNPC’s cash flow from the subsidy regime and we can’t continue to build this,” Kyari stated.
This medium learned that, a selection process for an external auditor by the procurement department of the finance ministry has begun, as indicated in the copy of the minutes of the recent FAAC meeting on Tuesday in Abuja.
“On the forensic audit covering the period 2015 to 2021 to Authenticate NNPC/Federation Claims in Respect of N2.7tn withheld by NNPC Limited:
“The Director of Home Finance reported that the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation was still working on the matter, adding that the Procurement Department of the Ministry had also put structures in place for the engagement of an external auditor, who would assist OAuGF to carry out the assignment,” according to the minutes.
The proposed audit, according to our survey, is in line with the public expectation to audit the NNPCL account, based on the question mark surrounding Nigeria’s actual daily crude production figures.
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