Missing $20 Billion Oil Money: Finance Minister, Okonjo-Iweala recommends forensic audit

To lay to rest, the controversy over the exact amount the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is yet to remit into the Federation Account, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has recommended the setting up of a team of forensic auditors whose work will satisfy the yearnings of all Nigerians.

The minister, who disclosed this at a media briefing in Abuja Thursday , said this was her recommendation to the Senate Committee on Finance, when she he appeared it.

She said the committee had already sanctioned the recommendation and asked that first report should be turned in on March 22, 2014.

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has insisted that there is an outstanding $20 Billion between what the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) shipped and what it paid to the government.

Mr Sanusi, who was speaking during a presentation at a hearing by the Senate Committee on Finance, said “Out of the $20 billion, there is $6 billion that NNPC says was shipped on behalf of Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), there is $2 billion third party finance; that’s $8 billion and the balance of $12 billion from our books and even from the books of the NNPC submission, is what is outstanding from the domestic crude of the $28 billion that was exported by Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC)”.