ABUJA: An audit ordered by Nigeria’s outgoing president was published on Monday, seeking to explain why $19 billion in oil revenue never made it into the government’s bank accounts.
The report caps a year-long political debate over how Africa’s top oil exporter manages its revenue, a debate that help lead to President Goodluck Jonathan’s ouster last month.
PricewaterhouseCoopers Ltd., which conducted the audit, said Nigeria’s state-owned oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., deposited $19 billion less than expected from January 2012 to July 2013. According to the report, $10 billion went to kerosene and motor fuel subsidies. The remainder went to operations itemized by the audit, such as $2 billion spent financing the growing debt of the company.
But PricewaterhouseCoopers said it couldn’t verify the authenticity of some documents upon which the audit was based. It also said some officials didn’t make themselves available during the process.
“The procedures we performed did not constitute an examination or a review in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards or attestation standards,” it said.
Nigeria’s state oil company spends so much money on fuel subsidies and other operations that it may operate close to a loss this year, barring an overhaul or a rise in oil prices, the report said.
The oil company spends so much money on fuel subsidies and other operations that it may operate close to a loss this year, barring an overhaul or a rise in oil prices, the report said.
A spokesman for the state oil firm declined to comment. A spokesman for Mr. Jonathan couldn’t be reached.
About 75% of Nigeria’s government revenue comes from the sale of crude oil, the price of which has dropped by more than half in the past nine months. Africa’s largest economy depends on oil revenue to service its 177 million people and its population is growing by about 11,000 people a day.
But even as the price of oil falls, the costs of subsidies of the petroleum products Nigerians use daily haven’t fallen as quickly, a senior official for the company said.
“It doesn’t work that way,” the official said, citing transportation and bureaucratic expenses, as well as the cost of repairs to Nigeria’s frequently damaged pipelines. Asked if the company would struggle to make a profit this year, as the report suggested, he said: “It’s a fact.”
Mr. Jonathan ordered the audit last year, after the country’s central bank accused the oil company of short changing the government by up to $21 billion. The company denied that; Mr. Jonathan proceeded to change the leadership of the central bank.
In national elections last month, voters cited the allegations against the national oil company among the top reasons they voted to remove Mr. Jonathan last month. He is scheduled to leave office in May.
