LAGOS AUGUST 17TH (NEWSRANGERS)-The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has recovered over N5bn and $10m from contractors and government officials indicted in the fraud in the turnaround maintenance of the nation’s refineries in Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri.
Sunday PUNCH reliably gathered that the anti-graft agency was working to recover another N10bn and $13m allegedly siphoned through contractors engaged in the maintenance.
Our correspondent learnt that the EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, took personal charge of the investigation owing to his displeasure with the non-functional refineries in spite of humongous public spendings on them.
Sunday PUNCH reports that Nigeria’s four refineries have been largely dormant for decades despite several attempts at rehabilitation.
Successive administrations have budgeted billions of dollars for their turnaround maintenance, but the facilities in Warri, Kaduna, and Port Harcourt have continued to underperform, forcing the country to rely heavily on imported petroleum products.
The EFCC is said to be probing the sum of $1,559,239,084.36 allocated to the Port Harcourt refinery, $740,669,600 released for the Kaduna refinery, and $656,963,938 approved for the Warri refinery.
Top sources at the anti-graft agency revealed that fraudulent practices, including over-invoicing, contract inflation, and questionable payments, were largely responsible for the inability of the refineries to function despite huge public spending over the years.
They disclosed that former management teams of the three refineries were repeatedly interrogated in connection with the discoveries.
One of the sources said the commission had concluded investigations into some officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited allegedly involved in the rehabilitation contracts and was preparing charges against them.
The source said, “Our investigation into the turnaround maintenance of the nation’s refineries in Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt, have yielded major discoveries of large- scale fraud.
“Investigators discovered fraudulent dealings through over-invoicing, contract inflation and questionable payments were largely responsible for the malfunctioning of the refineries.
Punch
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