Reps chide NNPC, CBN over refinery TAM expenses

The House of Representatives yesterday berated the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) over its inability to shed light on the monies to be expended on the Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) of the nation’s four refineries.

Chairman of the House ad-hoc committee probing into the justification for the TAM, Mr. Garba Datti, frowned at the NNPC Chief Operating Officer (Refineries and Petrochemicals), Mr. Anibor Kragha’s inability to give accurate figure of monies so far expended on the repair of the refineries.

The committee gave the NNPC till today to provide detailed information on the spending on the four refineries, particularly on all previous TAM and other repairs as a basis to justify the fresh $1.8 billion planned expenditure on TAM.

The committee said that submission by the NNPC official fell short of expectation on monies expended on TAM in recent years. Kragha had during the hearing faulted the committee’s position that over $20 billion was spent on TAM since the inception of the refineries by successive governments. He said there was no way $20 billion could have been spent on TAM even when the combined cost of building all the refineries was less than $25 billion.

But when prodded by the lawmakers to give the accurate figure spent on each of the refineries for TAM, Kragha failed to live up to their expectations just as he maintained that the NNPC’s new agenda was not limited to TAM but was to go for a “comprehensive rehabilitation” of the four refineries.

The committee was also piqued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Director in charge of Research, Mr. Ganiyu Amao’s inability to provide information on the “NNPC’s TAM withdrawals and expenditure.”It also directed Amao and his team of officials to take a cue from the NNPC by coming forth with useful information on the TAM today.

Amao, who observed that Nigeria’s economy suffered reverses due to the comatose nature of the nation’s refineries, disclosed that $119.409 billion was expended on the importation of commodities into the country in five years.He said of the amount, $36.371 billion was spent to import petroleum products within the period, adding that the bank’s ability to intervene in the foreign exchange market with a view to stabilising the naira is usually curtailed by excessive outflow of foreign exchange.