TheHILL. | LEGISLATURE | March 24, 2021.
Member representing Etinan/Nsit Ibom/Nsit Ubium Federal Constituency, Mr Onofiok Luke said that transparency and accountability must be brought to the fore as the Federal Government plans to rehabilitate the nation’s refineries.
Luke made the call on the floor of the House of Representatives while presenting a matter of urgent public importance on “The Need to Ensure Transparency and Accountability in the Rehabilitation Exercise of the Nation’s Refineries” today.
It will be recalled that the Federal Executive Council gave approval for the sum of $1.5 billion amounting to N575 billion for rehabilitation work on the 32-year-old Port Harcourt Refinery with a completion period of 44 Months. Luke said that measures should be put in place for the purpose to be achieved.
The Federal lawmaker raised concerns about the huge amount of money that had been spent in the past on the nation’s refineries without effective result. According to Luke, “NNPC had allegedly spent about $25 billion in turnaround maintenance of refineries in the past 25 years this latest prevailing development is coming after promises by the current administration that government would no longer spend on the facility”.
Luke lamented the huge deficit that the refineries had recorded. “Previous rehabilitations notwithstanding, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) audit report had last year revealed that three of the nation’s four refineries recorded N1.64 trillion cumulative losses in their 2014 to 2018 details”.
“Despite processing no crude oil in June last year, the three refineries still cost the country N10.23 billion in expenses. The three refineries processed no crude because of the rehabilitation works being carried out on them, therefore, there was no associated crude plus freight cost for the three refineries since there was no production but operational expenses that amounted to ₦10.27 billion. This resulted in an operating deficit of ₦10.23 billion by the refineries”, Luke said
Luke said that National Assembly needed to lend its voice to the public outcry on the planned rehabilitation of the refineries with the sum of $1.5billion considering facts that the facility has failed to perform after years of same.
He said the House Committee on Petroleum Resources Downstream should be mandated to carry out an investigative hearing and conduct a comprehensive audit of funds previously spent on the Rehabilitation/Repairs and Maintenance of the Port-Harcourt Refinery and other Refineries in the country.
The matter was referred to the relevant Committees in the House for further scrutiny.
