The Moment (London)
Henry Omunu
2 December 2011
Abuja — THE Senate ad hoc committee investigating the over N1.3trillion expended on fuel subsidy by the Federal Government has issued a one week deadline to Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala to submit the audited financial accounts of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Chairman of the probe panel, Senator Magnus Abe gave the order yesterday, at the resumed hearing of the probe into the expenditure incurred by the government in subsidizing fuel consumption this fiscal year.
Senator Abe said the committee needs to study the report to enable it determine the level of indebtedness of the Federal Government to the NNPC.
The minister had requested for time to study the audited accounts of the NNPC, allow the management of the corporation to answer queries raised in the audit report before forwarding the audited accounts to the Senate committee.
But, the ad hoc committee turned down the request of the minister, insisting that she has one week to forward the audited accounts to the probe panel or risk being subpoenaed by the committee.
Earlier, the minister had informed the committee that the fuel subsidy benefits only a few privileged Nigerians and not the poor who are meant to be the major beneficiaries of the scheme.
Okonjo-Iweala added that neighbouring countries are beneficiaries of the subsidy scheme as unscrupulous Nigerians smuggle petroleum products to neighbouring nations where they are sold at huge profits.
She added that the removal of subsidy will enable the Federal Government to concentrate resources on the provision of the needed infrastructure in critical sectors of the nation’s economy.
The minister said the huge expenditure on subsidy incurred by the government is as a result of the fluctuations in the prices of crude oil and refined products at the international market.
Also, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke in her presentation informed the probe panel that before now, the nation’s refineries were working at 30 percent capacity but production has improved to 60 percent.
“There is a high rate of vandalism which forced a shut-down of the Port-Harcourt refinery as 30 percent of production output was being lost to vandals.
“The Port-Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries are to undergo rehabilitation and Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) to bring them to 90 percent production capacity and when the three greenfield refineries come on stream, we can produce to meet local consumption,” she added.
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