No $25bn NNPC contract missing – Presidency

The Presidency Sunday said that neither the report that $25 billion worth of oil contracts were awarded by the NNPC nor that $25 billion in NNPC funds was missing was true. The Presidency host Eid al-adha lunch at the Banquet hall, State House, Abuja Sunday The Senior Special Assistant to the President, Office of the Vice President, Laolu Akande in a statement in Abuja said that there were no contracts procured by the NNPC based on the leaked memo of the Petroleum Resources Minister of State, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, adding that such impressions had been “maliciously” created in the past few weeks. 

Akande who said he was responding to media inquiries disclosed that a closer look at each of the said projects indicated clearly that “these are not procurement contracts.” According to him, “when I tweeted on Thursday morning last week, I had indicated that the Vice President, while acting as President approved Joint Venture Financing arrangements.

“But for some curious reasons, a few media reports used that tweet to report that I said the then Acting President approved N640 Billion worth of oil contracts.

Such reporting is both false and misleading and therefore ought to be completely ignored by all seekers of truth. “When you look diligently at the referenced projects/transactions one by one, you will see, as NNPC has shown, that none of them was actually a procurement contract. “Take both the Crude Term Contract and the Direct Sale, Direct Purchase (DSDP) agreements for instance; these are not procurement contracts involving the expenditure of public funds.

“Both transactions are simply a shortlisting process, in which prospective off-takers of crude oil and suppliers of petroleum are selected under agreed terms, and in accordance with due process. It is therefore wrong and misleading to refer to them as though they’re contracts involving the expenditure of NNPC funds, or public funds of any sort. “As you now know, the Honorable Minister of Petroleum Resources himself has in fact clarified that he meant to focus on administrative and governance issues, not red-flag any fraud – because no fraud exists in this matter.”

He further said that it was inaccurate to attach $10 billion and $5 billion values on both transactions. Akande said, “Attaching monetary values to these contracts is an arbitrary act that completely distorts understanding of the situation.” He said Nigerians ought to be informed clearly that “whenever there is a monetary value on any consignment of crude oil lifted in this country by any firm, the proceeds go directly to the Federation Account and not to any company. “In fact, the Buhari administration in the implementation of the TSA has closed down multiple NNPC accounts in order to promote transparency and probity.”

Vanguard