Senate Panel Summons CBN Governor Over ‘Missing’ $9.5m

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele has been summoned by the Senate Public Accounts Committee to appear before it on or before Thursday over the alleged disappearance of $9.5m interest which accrued to the Federation Account from Petroleum Profit Tax Investment.

Recall that Emefiele alongside other CBN directors had on March 9, 2021, faced the Senate to explain the whereabouts of the fund which the Accountant-General of the Federation (AuGF), Ahmed Idris, reported missing in his 2016 report.

The SPAC, which is currently scrutinizing the reports of the AuGF alleged during its sitting on Monday that the principal sums deposited, the tenor and rate of interest, were shrouded in secrecy,

The Petroleum Profit Tax is applicable to upstream operations in the oil industry. It is particularly related to rents, royalties, margins and profit-sharing elements associated with oil mining, prospecting and exploration leases.

The Chairman of the Senate panel, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, said the CBN Governor was being invited to corroborate some figures in the statements of account.

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He said that the CBN Governor has till Thursday this week to appear to address those issues before the Committee.

The committee had a penultimate week, summoned the officials of the apex bank over the alleged disappearance of the fund. No management staff of the apex bank honoured the lawmakers’ invitation.

The summon was sequel to the consideration of the AuGF report which probed the spendings of federal government’s agencies.

The report had read, “During the examination of transfers to Foreign Excess PPT/Royaltt and Foreign Excess Crude Accounts, it was observed that during the year 2016, amount totalling $6 million and $3.5 million were credited to the Foreign PPT/Royalty and Foreign Excess Crude Account as interest on funds investments.

“The authority for placing the funds which yielded the above interests totalling $9.5 million in a deposit account, the principal sums deposited, the tenor and rate of interest were not made available for audit verification.

“This observation had also been a subject of my reports since 2017 without any positive response from Central Bank of Nigeria.

“Records made available for audit further revealed that the balance in the foreign PPT/Royaltt and Foreign Excess Crude accounts as of 28th December 2016 were USD0.00 and USD251,826 respectively.

“This suggests the foreign PPT/Royalty was depleted before the year-end.

“The Accountant General has been requested to provide the authority for the funds invested, the tenor of the investment, rate unrest payable, the certificate for the funds invested and forward same for audit verifications.”