The House of Representatives has raised
eyebrows over alleged silence on the revenues generated by the Nigeria
Liquefied Natural Gas Limited and has asked the Minister of Finance,
Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to provide the details.
However, the House Committee on Finance
in its 50 questions on “state of the economy” to the Okonjo-Iweala, said
it had no information on the operations of the company and directed the
minister to provide the details.
The PUNCH is in possession of a
copy of the list of 50 questions, which the Chairman of the committee,
Mr. Abdulmumini Jibrin, handed over to the minister in Abuja.
Question 33 on the list dealt with the
NLNG, where the committee directed thus, “Provide details of
government’s stake in the NLNG.
“All categories of revenue under the NLNG and the total amount generated so far and evidence of remittances.”
She was also asked to provide information
on the revenue performance of the NNPC, Department of Petroleum
Resources, Federal Inland Revenue and the Nigerian Customs Service for
the years 2011-2013.
The committee took Okonjo-Iweala to task
over the failure of government to build the country’s foreign reserve to
$50bn by the end of the year as she had promised.
Similarly, it observed that the Excess
Crude Account had been depleted to about $3bn from $9bn, contrary to the
minister’s promise to grow the account to $10bn.
The question on foreign reserve and
excess crude, reads, “This time last year you informed this committee
that our external reserve position was about $48bn and the balance in
our excess crude account was about $9bn.
“You also said that the plan was to grow these balances to about $50bn and $10bn respectively.
“However, we are hearing that the balances have dropped to $43bn and $3bn respectively. And you are saying all is well?”
In answering the question, the committee
said the minister should explain whether the nine per cent shortfall in
crude oil projection for 2013 could be the reason for the dwindling
reserves.
“Crude oil projections for 2013 were
2.53million barrels per day, while actual figures supplied by the
NNPC/DPR/MTEF have averaged about 2.3m barrels per day, giving a
shortfall of about 9 per cent.
“Could this alone have caused such a drastic reduction in our reserves and savings positions?” the committee asked.
The minister’s responses
to the questions are expected to be presented to the committee in
January when lawmakers reconvene after the Christmas/New Year break.
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