President Muhammadu Buhari is presently
perfecting plans to split the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)
into two entities in one
of his anti-corruption stratagems.
The disclosure was made by the
presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina on Saturday in a State house
press release.
Buhari, elected in March on promises
to combat corruption, has made clear he wants to overhaul the oil sector in
Africa's biggest economy, which provides the government with around 70 percent
of its revenue.
He has said his government will trace
and recover what he called "mind-boggling" sums of money stolen from
the oil sector.
"Mr President will soon split
the NNPC into two entities. One will be an independent regulator and the other
one an investor vehicle," said the spokesman, who did not a provide a timeframe
for the restructuring.
The NNPC currently represents
national interests in oil and gas exploration, manages the energy sector and is
the industry regulator in Africa's top crude producer.
It has been accused of failing to
account for billions of dollars in the last few years although it has said that
the money was not lost. An NNPC source, who wished to remain
unnamed, said the planned changes were long overdue.
"We can't continue to be a
regulator, a revenue collector and a business, all rolled into one. That gives
room for a lot of confusion, obfuscation and misrepresentation," he said.
Last month Buhari dissolved the NNPC
board and more sackings are expected. The president, who has said he will
not appoint a cabinet until September, is widely expected to keep the petroleum
portfolio for himself.
Under the constitution, the NNPC is
supposed to hand over its oil revenue to the federal government, which then
pays back what the firm needs based on a budget approved by parliament.
But the act establishing the state
oil company allows it to cover costs before remitting funds to the government.
Last month, the National Economic
Council said the NNPC had earned 8.1 trillion naira ($41 billion) between 2012
and the end of May 2015, but paid only 4.3 trillion naira ($21.6 billion) to
the federal government.
A 2013 investigation by former
central bank governor Lamido Sanusi found the state oil company had failed to
pay $20 billion in revenues to government accounts between January 2012 and
July 2013.
The NNPC argued that the money could
be accounted for. A subsequent inspection of NNPC accounts by PwC found that
some funds were unaccounted for, but bemoaned a lack of cooperation and led to
the issuing of an audit with extensive caveats.
Elombah.com
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