Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), on Tuesday said it had recovered $1.6 billion, about N489.6 billion, from some companies fleeing its upstream subsidiary, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC).
Speaking in Abuja, during a visit by officials of the Chartered Institute of Forensic and Investigative Auditors of Nigeria (CIFIA) to the NNPC, Maikanti Baru, group managing director of the corporation, disclosed that the NNPC had made significant inroads in terms of fraud detection, prevention and control.
During the visit, Baru, who did not mention the name of the companies, was conferred an award of Honorary Fellow and Patron of CIFIA.
The NNPC boss explained that the recovery became possible to its insistence that all its staff and business partners imbibe transparency in all areas of operations.
He said the NNPC was able to resolve the case with IPCO Nigeria Limited, noting that out of the $400 million the company was seeking to obtain from the NNPC, the corporation ended up settling the issue with only $37.5 million.
He said, “There is a lot of sanity that has happened in the industry as a result of this. Recently, due to the work, we were able to get the Atlantic companies who were fleecing the NNPC subsidiary, the NPDC, and we got an award for them to refund $1.6 billion to the NPDC, through the arbitration process. This is just one.
“We have also been able to stem fraud. High profile court cases were been set up to defraud the NPDC. If you see the amount of money involved, if you do not have people who are determined to fight corruption, our chances would have been compromised by over $1.6 billion.
“We have had cases, like NNPC versus IPCO, where they are demanding over $400 million, and because of their activities we were able to settle out of court with them for $37.5 million, which is a saving of several percentages, about less than 10 per cent of the total amount.”
Also speaking, pro-term president of CIFIA, Victoria Enape, said the institute had observed Baru since his assumption and had recognised his stance as a champion of anti-corruption in the NNPC.
She said, “We believe that NNPC should be one of the organizations free from corruption, having somebody like you who is a champion of corruption.”
