The Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) on Monday put the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)’s total indebtedness to the federation account at N4.9 trillion between 2011 and 2015.

It further affirmed the recent Auditor General’s report which had indicted the corporation of not remitting N3.2 trillion into the federation account in 2014.

The RMAFC said whereas the auditor general’s report relied on the 2014 Annual Audit Report obtained from the records of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC)’s Technical Sub-Committee on Domestic Crude Oil Sales and reconciliation statement as contained in the NNPC’s mandate to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to arrive at the N3.2 trillion figure, records at its disposal indicated N4.9 trillion was the actual amount being owed the federation by NNPC as at 2015.

The RMAFC, in a statement issued and signed by its spokesman, Mr. Ibrahim Mohammed, said while the auditor general’s report claimed that NNPC owed the sum of N3.2 trillion to the Federation Account in 2014 from domestic crude sale, the corporation owed N1.99 trillion only in 2014 from domestic crude sales.

It added that the figure quoted by the Auditor-General for the Federation (AuGF) must have included revenues from other sources.

With respect to an alleged payment of $235 million realised from the sale of Natural Gas into an undisclosed Escrow Accounts by the NNPC, the commission explained that the NNPC had, on behalf of the NLNG, entered into agreements with three International Oil Companies (IOCs) including Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC), Shell Petroleum
Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), and Total E&P Nigeria Limited (TEPNG) under a Modified Carry Agreement (MCA) proceeds from which are deposited in Escrow Accounts for funding the various Gas projects under the LNNG.

It said the total amount transferred to the various accounts from 2012 to November 2015 was $1.615 billion.

RMAFC said it had consistently demanded through the FAAC Post Mortem, that the NNPC provide updated financial statements on the projects, a request which the corporation was yet to respond to.

The commission had been working with NNPC to reconcile the figures following a tripartite meeting held with the corporation, Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF) and RMAFC in December, 2015 where it was agreed that in view of the subsidy and other claims by NNPC, the Forensic Audit of the NNPC was critical in establishing which party was actually indebted to the other.

The forensic audit is expected to be concluded by the end of March, 2016.