The Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Ahmed Idris has been directed by the Nigerian Senate to investigate the $18.32bn paid to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) as dividend between 2004 and 2020.
The directive was given by the Chairman Senate Joint Committee on Finance and National Planning, Senator Solomon Adeola, at the stakeholders public hearing on the 2021-2023 medium term expenditure framework and fiscal strategy paper which held on Thursday, August 27, 2020.
The General Manager (External Relations and Sustainable Development) of NLNG, Mrs Eyono Fatai-Williams, had appeared before the panel, to present the financial activities of the company from 1999-2019 where she said that the company paid a dividend of over $18bn to NNPC from 2004 to 2019.
Fatai-Williams also disclosed that the NLNG remitted $9bn as tax to the Federal Government from 2011 till date and that an additional $15bn had also been remitted for field gas to the NNPC since the company began operations.
She however, reiterated NLNG’s commitment to a culture of transparency and integrity.
When Senator Adeola inquired from the AGF if he could confirm the payment of the dividend to the Federation account, he stated that the dividend was usually paid to the NNPC who are Nigeria’s representatives in the company and as such, that would be difficult to determine.
The Chairman, Senator Adeola therefore directed the AGF to probe the payment and report his findings to the senate within two weeks.
Comments