Intrigues continue to trail the Nigerian petroleum sector as Central Bank Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido testified before a Senate hearing that the money not accounted for by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was $20 billion.
The CBN governor told the Senate Committee of Finance that total oil lifting by the NNPC amounted to $67 billion, and only $47 billion was remitted to the apex bank, leaving a shortfall of $20 billion unaccounted for.
In its response, Group Managing Director (GMD) of NNPC, Andrew Yakubu, testified before the Senate Committee that Sanusi and the CBN were a bank and not an auditor and therefore did not understand the accounting process.
“CBN is a banking outfit, so I really, really understand why they will not understand some petroleum engineering issues and they are not also an auditing outfit.
“Now what they try to do is to audit and I heard some statements made here that they do not have this document, they don’t have that document.
“They are not the auditors. We have certified bodies and arms of agencies that are charged with the responsibility of auditing,” he said.
The Ministers of Petroleum and Finance were excused from the hearing yesterday but are expected to be at the continuation of the hearing next week.