Emefiele Meets Senate Today On Alleged Missing $9.5m PPT Fund
The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, is expected to lead top management staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria to the Senate today (Tuesday).
They are expected to explain details of the alleged missing $9.5m interest which accrued from Petroleum Profit Tax investment.
They will appear before the Senate Public Account Committee to explain the alleged disappearance of the principal sum deposited, the tenor and rate of interest.
The Chairman of the Senate panel, Senator Mathew Urhoghide, had while scrutinising the 2016 auditor-general’s report last week, declared that details of the PPT investment were shrouded in secrecy,
The PPT is a tax applicable to upstream operations in the oil industry.
It is particularly related to rents, royalties, margins and profit sharing elements associated with oil mining, prospecting and exploration leases.
The committee had last week summoned the officials of the apex bank over alleged disappearance of the fund.
The summon was sequel to the consideration of the 2016 AuGF report.
The Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, had during the sitting of the Senate panel last week, failed to provide relevant documentary evidences regarding the said fund.
The committee therefore resolved to invite the CBN officials to give explanations on the issue raised in the AuGF report.
The report read in part, “During the examination of transfers to Foreign Excess PPT/Royalty and Foreign Excess Crude Accounts, it was observed that during the year 2016, amount totalling $6m and $3.5m were credited to the Foreign PPT/Royalty and Foreign Excess Crude Account as interest on funds’ investments.
“The authority for placing the funds which yielded the above interests totaling $9.5m in deposit account, the principal sums deposited, the tenor and rate of interest were not made available for audit verification.
“This observation had also been a subject of my reports since 2017 without any positive response from Central Bank of Nigeria.
“Records made available for audit further revealed that the balance in the foreign PPT/Royalty and Foreign Excess Crude accounts as at 28th December 2016 were USD0.00 and USD251,826 respectively.
“This suggest the foreign PPT/Royalty was depleted before the year end.
“The accountant-general has been requested to provide the authority for the funds invested, tenor of the investment, rate unrest payable, certificate for the funds invested and forward same for audit verification.”
Meanwhile, the Senate panel had also last week, summoned the apex bank over N121bn outstanding subsidy paid to Independent Petroleum Marketers in 2016.
