The Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation (OAGF) has found financial problems worth N514 billion in the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) for the year 2021.
The audit report points out four main issues:
- N343.64 billion was wrongly taken from domestic crude oil sales.
- N82.95 billion was taken without permission from government revenue to fix refineries.
- N83.66 billion was kept in a special account instead of being sent to the government’s main account.
- N3.75 billion was paid without proper proof to cover losses from petrol sales.
The 2021 audit report shows that these actions go against Nigeria’s Constitution and the Financial Regulations Act of 2009. It also mentioned that the NNPCL did not give any explanations or reasons for these money-related issues. One of the biggest problems was taking N343.64 billion from domestic crude oil sales to cover different operating costs, but there were no details or documents to explain how the money was used. The audit report said this could mean public funds were either taken for other purposes or used wrongly.
The audit also found that N82.95 billion was taken out of the money made from selling crude oil and gas without any proof that it was approved. This amount, supposedly for refinery rehabilitation, was taken at source, bypassing necessary financial authorisation.
Another major concern raised was the unreported N3.75bn shortfall in petrol sales, with no transaction details provided to justify the expenditure.
The report also found that N83.66 billion from NNPC’s joint venture operations, labeled as miscellaneous income between 2016 and 2020, was put into a CBN/NNPC sinking fund account instead of going into the Federation Account. Because of this redirection of funds, the federal government had to borrow money to cover the shortfall.
