The House of Representatives has ordered a probe of over $25 billion allegedly spent by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on turnaround maintenance of refineries.
The decision was sequel to adoption of a motion initiated by Mr. Onofiok Akpan Luke during plenary presided over by Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila.
In effect, the House mandated its Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) to carry out an investigative hearing and conduct a comprehensive audit of funds previously spent on rehabilitation/repairs and maintenance of the Port Harcourt refinery and others in the country.
The House further mandated the committee to examine the performance bond, assurance, warrantees and guarantees put in place for operating and maintaining the plants after commissioning and report back, for further legislative action, within six weeks.
Urging the Federal Government to grant licence and provide incentives for building and operation of modular refineries, the House directed its Committee on Compliance to ensure compliance with the resolution.
Luke, who chairs the House Committee on Judiciary, recalled that NNPC had allegedly spent about $25 billion on turnaround maintenance of the refineries in the past 25 years. He said it beats his imagination that government went ahead to approve another $1.5 billion (about N575 billion) for rehabilitation work on the 32-year-old Port Harcourt Refinery after promises that it would no longer spend money to fix the facilities.
“Previous rehabilitations notwithstanding, the NNPC audit report had last year revealed that three of the nation’s four refineries recorded N1.64 trillion cumulative loss in their 2014 to 2018 details. Despite processing no crude oil in June last year, the three refineries still cost the country N10.23 billion in expenses,” the Akwa Ibom-born lawmaker queried.
“The three refineries processed no crude because of the rehabilitation works being carried out on them. There was no associated crude plus freight cost for the three refineries since there was no production, but operational expenses amounted to ₦10.27 billion.”
The lawmaker stressed the need for intervention of the National Assembly to ensure judicious use of the approved $1.5billion, considering the fact that the facility has failed to perform after years of rehabilitation/repair/maintenance.