Lawmakers Call for Forensic Audit of N11.34trn Port Harcourt, Warri, Kaduna Refineries Rehabilitation

•Urge NNPCL, others to adhere to rehabilitation timelines 

•Ask FBNQuest Merchant Bank to refund $438.012 retainer fee 

•Say N5.9tn spent on subsidy payments from 2010-2020

Udora Orizu in Abuja

Members of the House of Representatives yesterday, called for forensic audit of all the rehabilitation projects at the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna Refineries and Petrochemical Companies, alleging that obvious omissions were noted in the submissions made by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).

The House made the call while considering and adopting the recommendations of the report by its Ad-hoc Committee on the State of Refineries and the Need to Ascertain the Actual Daily Consumption of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in Nigeria.

The lawmakers had last week postponed the reconsideration following a ruling by the Chairman of the Committee of the Whole and Deputy Speaker, Hon. Ahmed Idris-Wase, who directed the Committee to bring out a clear list of recommendations that should be a template to deal with the specific issues the panel was set up to achieve.

Presenting the report again at plenary yesterday, the Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Ganiyu Johnson, disclosed that from their findings, the rehabilitation gulped the country the sum of N11.35 trillion in 13 years, beginning from 2010 to date.

He said the three refineries became unproductive from year 2010, making a range of losses; with Port Harcourt put at 7.6 per cent losses to the tune of N132.52 billion from 2012; Warri at six per cent losses amounting to N111.37 billion from 2014; and Kaduna at 10 per cent losses to the tune of N122.62 billion from 2014.

The report stated that from 2010 to 2019, the refineries were performing sub-optimally with an annual combined capacity of less than 30 per cent and in 2019, the NNPCL obtained an Executive approval to shut down the refineries for comprehensive rehabilitation to restore the plants to a maximum of 90 per cent nameplate company utilisation.

It indicated that the total losses from the non-functional refineries since year 2010, was N366.52 billion and the total cost of operations and running them from 2010–2020 stood at N4.80 trillion.

 The report further indicated that subsidy payments totaling N5.9 trillion was made from 2010 to 2020.

He therefore recommends that the NNPCL should take full advantage of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 passed by the National Assembly to fast track the rehabilitation programme of the refineries empowered by the legislative intent for a deregulated Business Environment and restore the refineries to minimum 90 per cent nameplate capacity utilisation.

He further recommended that FBNQuest Merchant Bank should refund to the nation the total sum of $438,012.44 paid to the company as Retainer Fees from 2017-2018, as the Financing Advisory Contract, since the rehabilitation of the three refineries was not successful.