Patrick Ugeh
7 September 2008
Abuja — Minister of State for Energy, Petroleum, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia, SAN, has taken up the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, on his claim that N1.6 trillion belonging to the Federation Account was not remitted by revenue-generating agencies, including Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC) the nation's cash cow, which is under his supervision.
Speaking with a select group of journalists in his conference room late Friday evening, Ajumogobia expressed doubt about the veracity of the allegation, contending that there was no way such an amount or a part of it that could have been missing from the books of NNPC without the auditors spotting it since, according to him, the organisation's accounts were audited on a regular basis by reputable accounting firms.
Bankole had disclosed at the conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, which ended in Abuja two weeks ago, that over N1.6 trillion meant for the Federation Account in the last 10 years was nowhere to be found as the nation's revenue generating agencies failed to remit it.
One of the organisations he listed as being involved in the malfeasance was the NNPC, a parastatal under the Ministry of Energy, Petroleum. According to him, only about 10 per cent investigation brought forth the discovery of such a huge amount of unaccounted public fund.
But Ajumogobia sees Bankole's statement as doubtful.
"My reaction to the statement of the Honourable Speaker is surprise, even disbelief," the minister told reporters. "NNPC's accounts are audited regularly by reputable audit firms, and I think it is impossible for N1.6 trillion to be unaccounted for and for that not to have come to light in the audit reports. I am as astounded as you are. I am astounded. I doubt it. I doubt it."
He stated, however, that if the fact comes to light that the N1.6 trillion was really missing, do I start by believing it? No. I start by saying somebody said that and a process would be followed to find out whether it is so or not so, and if it is so, then next time the question is asked, I'll be able to answer you better. "
Speaking on his attitude to the stories of corruption concerning his ministry and its parastatals before his assumption of office, and if he came with a determination to stamp out the malaise, Ajumogobia said: "I kept an open mind. These things are at face value in terms of what people say. If someone says a person is corrupt, I don't start from the premise that he is corrupt; I start from the premise that somebody says that he is corrupt... I think corruption is a fact of life in Nigeria and I think institutions that have been set up to deal with corruption, specifically EFCC and ICPC, are a recognition that it is an ailment in the country that needs to be addressed. Given the role of the oil and gas industry in the nation's life, I think it will be an aberration if in a country that has corruption as a problem, that there weren't issues in that industry.
I took it for granted that there must be issues but the scope and extent of them I had no way of knowing."
Pressed further if he now knew, he said: "No, I don't. No. I don't because the thing about corruption and, to use your word, sleaze, is that it is conspiratorial in nature. Corruption is viewed generally in the context of bribery and so on. The bribe giver and the bribe-taker conspire and sometimes the bribe-giver will claim to be a victim, in other words, I have to give in order to do this. And so there is a conspiracy of silence between them both because the law says they're both guilty. And so it's a difficult crime to eradicate. But I think things have moved significantly in the direction of a less corrupt society/environment, whatever."
He said the Federal Government's approach to the problem in the Niger Delta was in order and needs to be sustained.
On the issue of volatility on the international oil market, he said: "I think in the last 12 months, we've seen unprecedented volatility and we've also seen unprecedented prices. I think we're still in that cycle in my opinion. The price today is lower than it was yesterday, and much higher than it was this time last year. So I think that just like our stock market, the prices were going higher and higher and everybody assumed that once they invest there, their investment would double in the next week.
"They got a rude shock because stock markets don't operate like that. They're cyclical. And I think what we've seen in the oil market is the same sort of thing. I believe that the single most important factor that is affecting the oil prices is speculation, and speculation, by its nature, is based on several factors. And the effect of speculation was for people to go into commodity - oil in particular - if you look, at the time the price of oil was going high, all commodity prices were going higher - gold was high as petroleum was going higher; copper, tin; so there was a factor there to show that people were taking money out of the US dollar, which was also at an all-time low.
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