Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has said that the corporation is diligently working on the issue of the alleged unremitted $11.6bn (N2.3tn) Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas dividends but the committee set up has not concluded its meetings.
In a statement issued by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Mr. Ohi Alegbe, explained that contrary to Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative’s statement that nothing was being done to get the money remitted; the matter had since been referred to the Inter-Ministerial Task Team for reconciliation and resolution.
Alegbe said “At the last meeting of the IMTT, it was resolved that the Minister of Petroleum, Chairman of NEITI, Executive Secretary of NEITI and the Group Managing Director of the NNPC should meet on the issue of the NLNG dividends and report back to the IMTT.
“Unfortunately, that meeting has not held. However, another meeting of the IMTT is coming up next week and the issue will be taken up from there.
“NEITI, as a member of the IMTT, is aware of the ongoing efforts to reconcile and resolve the issue of the NLNG dividend remittance.”
NEITI on Tuesday had called on President Mohammadu Buhari to probe the issue of the unremitted funds.
The Executive Secretary of NEITI, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed in a statement said “Our 2012 audit report discovered that total dividend, loans and interest repayment from the LNG paid to the NNPC in 2012 was $2.8bn; however, in the course of NEITI’s audit, the NNPC was unable to provide any evidence that the funds were remitted to the Federation Account as required by law.
“The total amount received by the NNPC from the LNG under the same circumstances, which has not been remitted to the Federation Account, stands at $11.6bn.”