N500bn SURE-P fund missing – Senate

The Senate on Tuesday said the
Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation had not accounted for the
N32 removed as subsidy on each litre of
Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) sold from
January 2012 to September 2013.
It lamented that officials of the NNPC
failed to honour its invitation to give
account of how they managed the
accrued fund.
Members of the Senate ad hoc
committee on the Subsidy Reinvestment
and Empowerment Programme raised
the alarm after NNPC and the Central
Bank of Nigeria officials failed to honour
an appointment with them on Tuesday.
A member of the committee, Senator
Kabiru Marafa, said the committee had
observed that over N800bn ought to
have accrued for the SURE-P projects
between January 2012 and September
2013.
According to him, the accrued fund will
be over N800bn based on N32 that is
removed from each of the 25 billion
litres of fuel sold in 21 months.
He said the figure was contained in a
letter dated October 9, 2013 from the
Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources
to the committee. The letter, he said,
was signed by the ministry’s Director of
Finance and Accounts, Mr. Salmanu
Faskari.
Marafa said, “The committee had earlier
written the NNPC to ascertain the
quantity of fuel sold from when the
subsidy programme started till date.
NNPC gave us the quantity sold from
January 2012 and September 2013,
covering 21 months.
“If you add everything together, it will
amount to about 25 billion litres and if
you multiply 25 billion litres by N32, you
get about N800bn. What SURE-P
coordinators told us when they
appeared before us was that they had
so far collected about N300bn since the
subsidy removal regime started.
“The SURE-P team led by Mr.
Christopher Kolade said they were
receiving N15bn flat rate every month.
If you multiply 21 months by N15bn, it
will be about N350bn. What we are
even asking is what happened to the
over N500bn difference. That is what we
ask the NNPC to come and tell us.
“We were also disappointed that the
CBN was not here because they are the
custodian of the fund. They should come
and account for how they came about
the N15bn they were remitting every
month when it was not the same
quantity of fuel they were selling every
month.
“The figure cannot be a flat rate. Based
on the figure which the ministry
supplied, in January this year, the nation
consumed about 1.3 billion litres of
petrol but it had dropped to 770, 695,
645 in September 2013.”
Chairman of the Senate ad hoc
committee on SURE-P, Senator Abdul
Ningi, threatened to use all legitimate
means to bring the affected officials
before the committee.