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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
House of Representatives has resolved to probe the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited ( NNPCL) Joint Venture operations over alleged loss of $60billion revenue loss.
Consequently, the House mandated its Committee on Finance to undertake the investigation and report back to the House for further legislative action.
The Committee is expected to probe NNPCL JV operations to determine the income and cash call costs due to each partner, especially the federation and the federal government and ascertain whether due process and diligence were observed in the exercise.
This followed the adoption of a motion by Chike Okafor, calling for probe of the loss of over $60 billion revenue due to alleged inflated cash calls by NNPCL JV agreements, as yesterday ‘s plenary.
Okafor, in his lead debate, explained that the NNPCL, on behalf of the Federal Government operates joint ventures and related agreements with private oil companies in the oil and gas sectors of the economy. He stated that the aim is to ensure a sustainable revenue generation and economic development.
According to him, “the NNPCL, as representatives of the Federal Government and Federation have about 60per cent holding while other partners have the remaining 40 per cent.”
Nevertheless, the lawmaker expressed concern that “due to bloated cash call costs, the NNPCL Upstream Investment Management Services (NUIMS); a unit under the NNPCL in charge of negotiation of costs (both Capex and Opex) have caused huge losses in the neighborhood of ($60,000,000,000) Sixty Billion Dollars over the years.”
Okafor also expressed concerns that “the activities of NUIMS have resulted in huge revenue losses, fiscal deficits and an alarming debt profile”. He argued that there is need to have ensure probity, transparency and value for money in the NNPCL JV operations.
