A UK-based natural resources accountability group, the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), has said that under President Muhammadu Buhari, the NNPC has continued to withhold billions of dollars in oil revenues from the treasury.<\/p>\n
The report titled, \u201cNNPC Still Holds the Blank Check\u201d, is a follow up to a 2015 report on the activities of NNPC by the NGRI.<\/p>\n
Buhari holds the position of petroleum resources minister.<\/p>\n
It said the corporation still holds on to oil revenues without effective rules or oversight, adding that despite Buhari\u2019s personal resolve to curb graft in Nigeria\u2019s oil industry, the corporation in the second half of 2015 made up to $6.3 billion from sales of export crude, domestic crude and oil from its subsidiary the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), out of which only $2.1 billion was entered into the Federation Account.<\/p>\n
According to it, the NNPC retained 66 per cent of sales proceeds from these three types of transactions. This, it noted, was 12 per cent higher than what it retained between 2013 and 2014.
\nIt said that while the NNPC\u2019s withholding covers known costs, notably its share of the joint venture expenditure, the corporation has however not fully explained others, especially revenues retained from NPDC and domestic crude sales.<\/p>\n
NNPC\u2019s spending on this scale, it said, raises questions about its adherence to fiscal responsibility, especially at a time when public finances are stretched and the government is looking for monies to fund its budget.<\/p>\n
The report advised the government to establish a clear, legally enforceable rule governing what revenues NNPC could keep and how they can be spent now that it is undergoing some sorts of reforms.
\nOtherwise, it said oil sector corruption and waste could return to their prior devastating levels once Buhari leaves or crude oil prices rise again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A UK-based natural resources accountability group, the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), has said that under President Muhammadu Buhari, the NNPC has continued to withhold billions of dollars in oil…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n