Fakoyejo OlalekanThe Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will be probed by the House of Representatives for its handling of the excess crude account and other investment vehicles.
In their plenary session on Thursday, the lower chamber set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the use of the excess crude oil, petroleum profits tax and royalty accounts by the CBN between 2015 to date.
The lawmakers resolved to probe the CBN after a motion moved by the Labour Party (LP) lawmaker from Edo, Esosa Iyawe.
Iyawe said CBN has flagrantly and consistently refused the requests by the Auditor General for the Federation to disclose the details on the management of interests accruing from the Petroleum Profit tax (PPT)/Royalty and Foreign Excess Crude Account.
According to Iyawe, the auditor-general disclosed in an annual report in 2015 that CBN deposited $1,829,025.45 as interest on investments in the excess crude account, however, no information was provided regarding the principal and other details of the investments.
“The House is also concerned that the CBN has flagrantly and consistently refused the requests by the Auditor General for the Federation to disclose the details regarding the management of interests accruing from the Petroleum Profit tax (PPT)/Royalty and Foreign Excess Crude Account.
“The House is further concerned about reports which revealed unapproved and indiscriminate withdrawals from the ECA, including current year expenditures, fuel subsidies, debt financing and power projects, all of which are outside the fund’s mandate.
“The House is disturbed that the 2016 audit report revealed the disappearance of over $9.5 million interest accrued from the Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) Investment.
“The House is also disturbed that obscurity has consistently characterized the management of interests accruing on Federal Government investments, which is in contravention of the accountability principle, and points to misuse of much-needed government funds,” he said.
Iyawe stated that the effort of the Federal Government to block revenue leakages, increase revenue and curb corruption have been frustrated by CBN’s refusal to be transparent.
He argued before his colleagues that CBN’s action has also affected revenue remitted to the federation account. Iyawe aver that the apex bank should disclose the details “without further delay, following the required format, all the interests and principal sums on the investments in the excess crude oil/petroleum profits tax/royalty account to the auditor-general for the federation’s office.”
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