Reps uncover eight billion litres fuel subsidy scam .

Guardian

19 January 2012

Reps uncover eight billion litres fuel subsidy scam .

  

IT has been long in coming but it arrived upon us yesterday and Nigerians who long suspected that the nation was being bled through the fuel subsidy policy might be right after all!

Laying bare the fraud that might have cost the country billions of Naira, the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee investigating the management of subsidy on petrol learnt yesterday that the Federal Government dutifully paid for 59 million litres of the product on a daily basis throughout year 2011, when the daily consumption capacity for the country was 35 million litres only.

Shocked by this disclosure, the Committee expressed disappointment that the gap between what was paid for and the consumption capacity - 24 million litres daily – created ample room for all involved in the subsidy regime to rip off the nation.

In a related development, former Petroleum Minister, Prof. Tam David-West, said the disclosures being made before the ad hoc panel on the petrol subsidy funds were a manifestation that Nigerians have been duped.   

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While NEITI on Monday put the amount at N360 billion, Group Managing Director, NNPC, Austin   Oniwon, yesterday insisted before the Lawan panel of the House of Representatives that the figure was N630 billion.

Oniwon argued that the NNPC at no time provided information to NEITI on its operations. “We have the document for N630 billion…The N1.348 trillion was the reconciled figure between NNPC, PPPRA (Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency) and Ministry of Finance.”

The NNPC chief also warned that the full benefit of the proposed three new refineries and the proposed turn around maintenance (TAM) of the four refineries might not be realised if the spate of vandalism of oil pipelines was not addressed.