The House of Representatives on Monday frowned at the inability of the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) to provide details of Nigeria’s daily fuel consumption and how much it was being owed by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation and other oil marketers in the country.
The General Manager, Finance and Accounts of the agency, Peter Joshua, had told the Committee that it generated about N2.835 billion in 2014 from the 15 kobo accruing to it from every litere of fuel sold in the country.
Out of the money, he said about N708.940 million was expected to be paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund, while only N207.726 million out of the amount was remitted to the government coffer in 2014, leaving a balance of N501.214 million unpaid by the agency.
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The House Committee on Finance however ordered the management of the PPPRA to reappear before the committee to show course why they should not be indicted for lying to Nigerians and denying the nation huge sums of money accruing to the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation.
The nation’s financial regulations requires all government agencies to remit 25 percent of their internally generated revenue or 80 percent of their operating surplus to the CRF which ever is higher.
When the Committee sought to know the sources of revenue of the agency, the General Manager said it is entitled to 15 kobo from every litre petroleum product delivered and consumed in the country as well as sales of unserviceable assets, registration of contractors and rent from office space.
Not satisfied with the reasons presented by the agency, the committee sought to know what the daily petroleum consumption of Nigeria was, to which the agency have no definite answer.
The General Manager said even though the average daily consumption has changed, he was not in a position to state the exact figure of daily consumption of petrol in the country.
When asked to estimate the amount of fuel being consumed daily in the country, the General Manager said at the moment, Nigeria consume between 35 to 40 million liters of fuel daily.
However, chairman of the Committee, Rep. James Abiodun Faleke, told the agency to supply the committee the actual figure of daily consumption of fuel from 2011 to 2019, adding that the report of the Accountant General of the Federation about the remittances from the agency was not encouraging.
He told them to supply the committee bank statements, payment receipt, amount owed it by the NNPC and other agencies, contract awarded and names of companies benefiting from such contracts, annual budget of the agency among others.
The Committee also frowned at the decision of the National Ear Centre, Kaduna to unilaterally spend part of its internally generated revenue on drug revolving scheme without approval or any document to back it up.
Chief Medical Director of the Centre, Dr. Mustapha Abubakar Yaro had told the Committee that his centre decided to keep aside part of its IGR to finance its drug revolving scheme so that it does not run out of supplies.
But the Committee told him that with a salary bill of about N90 million monthly and a revenue contribution of les than one million to the federations account, he has no right to tamper with the money that was supposed to accrue to the government.
Faleke told him, “We are here to ensure that there is money to implement the 2020 budget. If we don’t have money to implement the budget, it will affect our communities and your community. That is why we are here
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