Senate Uncovers N120bn Varying Oil Subsidy Payments

The Senate Committee on Public Accounts on Wednesday uncovered a differential of N120 billion in the payment of subsidy to the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulators (PPPRA) in 2016.

The panel, relying on a 2016 report by the Auditor-General for the Federation, said the subsidy amount reflected in the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) record was N443 billion, while the record presented by the PPPRA showed N563bn.

“The amounts reflected in FAAC records at the OAGF (Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation) of N443,940,559,974.80 as subsidy payments during the year 2016 is at variance with the total amount paid of N563,283,294,925.47 in the records of PPPRA as subsidy payments during the year 2016,” the report said.

But the National President of IPMAN, Elder Chinedu Okoronkwo, said the union has over 50,000 members across the country, adding that the agency did not know the real beneficiary of the N80bn differential.

“If you give us the list of the beneficiaries of the subsidy, we can now reach out to them.”

The committee, chaired by Senator Matthew Urhoghide, therefore, summoned PPPRA to provide the list of beneficiaries for IPMAN to respond to issues raised in the query.