The Senate through its Committee on Public Accounts, has beamed its searchlight on the N34billion lodged in Fixed Deposit Account ( FDA) by management of Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF) , without remittance of accrued interest of N182million into Consolidated Revenue Fund ( CRF) .
Non – remittance of interest from the N34billion placed in Fixed Deposit Account by management of PEF , came to the fore during consideration of query raised to that effect in the 2016 Audit Report by the office of Auditor General of the Federation.
In the report , management of PEF was alleged to have only remitted N82million out of N182million accrued interest in 2015 and allegedly pocketed N100million.
The query reads: “At the Petroleum Equalization Fund (Management) Board, it was revealed that in 2015, the Board placed the sum of N34,003,057,534.22 (Thirty-four billion, three million, fifty-seven thousand, five hundred and thirty-four naira, twenty-two kobo) in fixed deposit accounts in various banks which yielded interest in the sum of N182,400,810.74 (One hundred and eighty-two million, four hundred thousand, eight hundred and ten naira, seventy-four kobo).
“However, the Board remitted only the sum of N82,263,824.31 (Eighty-two million, two hundred and sixty-three thousand, eight hundred and twenty-four naira, thirty-one kobo) to the Consolidated Revenue Fund, leaving a balance of N100,136,986.43 (One hundred million, one hundred and thirty-six thousand, nine hundred and eighty-six naira, forty-three kobo) unaccounted for.
“This act is a contravention of the provision of Financial Regulation 222 which stipulates that “Interest earned on bank accounts must be properly classified to the appropriate revenue head of Accounts and paid to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
“The Executive Secretary should remit the outstanding interest yield of N100,136,986.43 immediately to the Consolidated Revenue Fund and furnish evidence of remittance for my verification.
“Failure to comply should attract appropriate sanctions in line with Financial Regulation 3112 which stipulates that “where an officer fails to give satisfactory reply to an audit query within 7 days for his failure to account for government revenue, such officer shall be surcharged for the full amount involved and such officer handed over to either the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) or Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC)”.
The Senate Committee had fixed Friday last week for Executive Secretary of PEF , Ahmed Bobboi and top management staff to appear before it on the infraction but neither Bobboi nor any of his representatives appeared before the committee due to non existence of the agency any more .
Consequently, the Committeee chaired by Senator Mathew Urhoghide ( PDP Edo South), resolved that the new management of Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission is expected to respond to the allegation since federal government has scrapped Petroleum Equalisation Fund following the signing of Petroleum Industrial Act