PwC Audit Report Reveals NNPC's Subsidy 'Fraud'

Nigeria - The PricewaterhouseCoopers audit report probing the finances of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has revealed that the corporation made double subsidy claims on petrol and kerosene.

In the final report made available by the government on Monday, the auditors said the the corporation over-claimed $980m (N19.3bn based on the interbank exchange rate of N197 to a dollar) as subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit and Dual Purpose Kerosene between January 2012 and July 2013.

“Our examination of the PMS and DPK import verified by PPPRA revealed that some discharges were apparently verified and subsidy advised to NNPC more than once,” the report stated.

PwC alleged “repeated subsidy” for PMS amounting to N3,709,879,190 ($23,954,796) and another “repeated subsidy” for DPK amounting to N6,169,502,266 ($39,836,652). It added that the there was another $36.05m “over-statement” in PPPRA’s PMS subsidy payment advice to the NNPC.

It also called for a review of the current NNPC Act to make it pay all revenues accruing from crude oil sales into the Federation Account.