The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), has insisted that N302 billion was missing from the coffers of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

The insistence is coming barely a week after the House Committee on Petroleum had cleared the NNPC from the alleged missing funds saga.

Mr. Ajadu further observed that the dismissal of the commission’s case by the legislative arm committee on petroleum "may unjustly affect the credibility of the commission.

He argued that the missing N302 billion was not the main issue at stake when the various leakages arising from the objective submissions the RMAFC pointed out were considered.

It will be recalled that the commission had queried NNPC’s reception of 445,000 barrels of crude oil, an average of 50 per cent of the federation crude for domestic purposes when the petroleum corporation knew that the four refineries in the country could hardly refine half of the 445,000 barrels even at the best of times.

The RMAFC had questioned why the NNPC had to export the unprocessed domestic crude at the prevailing market rate far above the fixed price of $18 at which it procured the crude especially when it failed to remit the difference of the sales into the federation account.

According to the commission, the NNPC had also fixed its exchange rate at N110 per dollar against the Inter-bank Foreign Exchange Market determined by (IFEM) operating at the time of sale, which it stressed was high.

Following the legislative arm’s dismissal of the commission’s allegations therefore, the RMAFC has recommended that the Joint Venture Cash Calls (JVC) should be jointly funded by the three tiers of government and that the budget of the JVC should be prepared annually and be made to pass through the normal budgetary processes and scrutiny.

It also recommended that only crude oil required should be allocated to the NNPC with due consideration given to the current capacity utilisation of the refineries in the country.

The commission also posited that the NNPC should explicitly include the subsidy it offers in the annual budged and appropriate it accordingly instead of leaving it to its current discretional processes.

All revenue agencies of government, it further stated, should abide by the law and constitutional provisions in their operations.

Meanwhile, chairman of the RMAFC, Engineer Hamman Tukur has said that the commission was not out to probe the NNPC but to ensure efficient revenue generation for the Nigerian federation.

In a brief chat with reporters, the chairman said that the federation account was being shortchanged, reiterating that every Nigerian was entitled to know NNPC’s landing cost and subsidy.