The Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NPRA), (formerly the Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF), must account for the interest that accrued to the N34 billion it placed in a fixed deposit with financial institutions, the Senate has said.

The Senate Committee on Public Accounts, chaired by Matthew Urhoghide, has accused the agency of not remitting fully the accrued interest from the N34 billion fixed in a deposit account.

Senator Urhoghide told journalists during a press briefing that the agency must present evidence of remitting N182 million accrued interestbfrom N34 billion placed in fixed deposit, saying that whether the agency changes name or not, it must appear before the Committee and account for the accrued interest in respect of the N34 billion in question.

According to him, PEF must account for the outstanding N100 million that is remaining in the interest accrued to N34 billion placed in the fixed deposit account, or else the Committee will sustain the position of the Auditor General’s of the Federation against the agency.

But, the Agency claimed to have remitted the interest to the Federation Account in a letter to the

The query read: “At the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (Management) Board, it was revealed that in 2015, the Board placed the sum of N34,003,057,534.22 (Thirty-four billion, three million, fifty-seven thousand, five hundred and thirty-four naira, twenty-two kobo) in fixed deposit accounts in various banks which yielded interest in the sum of N182,400,810.74.

“However, the Board remitted only the sum of N82,263,824.31 to the Consolidated Revenue Fund, leaving a balance of N100,136,986.43 (One hundred million, one hundred and thirty-six thousand, nine hundred and eighty-six naira, forty-three kobo) unaccounted for.

This act is a contravention of the provision of Financial Regulation 222 which stipulates that “Interest earned on bank accounts must be properly classified to the appropriate revenue head of Accounts and paid to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

“The Executive Secretary should remit the outstanding interest yield of N100,136,986.43 immediately to the Consolidated Revenue Fund and furnish evidence of remittance for my verification. Failure to comply should attract appropriate sanctions in line with Financial Regulation 3112 which stipulates that “where an officer fails to give satisfactory reply to an audit query within 7 days for his failure to account for government revenue, such officer shall be surcharged for the full amount involved and such officer handed over to either the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) or Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC)