The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has demanded that the Federal Government should institute a panel to probe the alleged fraudulent acts of some oil and gas companies who illegally benefit from the subsidy in the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.

Reacting to a purported report after the investigations by KPMG, an internationally recognised accounting and auditing firm, the association said that all the companies involved and those behind them should be punished for committing a crime against the nation.

Speaking on the issue, the PENGASSAN President, Comrade Babatunde Ogun, said that for the Federal Government to gain the confidence and trust of the Nigerian people, the government must ensure transparency by conducting further investigations that will bring those behind the fraud to book.

He said, “We need to know how much has been spent on the refineries’ overhaul to date by the various governments, with the value for money audit to determine the veracity of the various proposals that were used to demand for the colossal amount sunk into the processes.

“The government should equally publish the KPMG Audit report on fuel subsidy, including the names of the beneficiaries of such subsidies and ensure that those involved in the fraud do not go unpunished.

The KPMG report should not be swept under the carpet like reports before it.”

He said that PENGASSAN wanted to be put in place a judicial inquiry into the fuel subsidy pay outs which stood at about 1.3 trillion or 25 per cent of Nigeria’s yearly budget.

He noted that the wastages, which the government complained about in the subsidy, were not in the policy itself but in the process of granting the subsidy on the petroleum products.

“The impact of the volumes and proceeds of local fuel supplies shows easy falls against the import price parity regimes inflicted by the imported petroleum products,” he said.

Comrade Ogun  stated that for Nigeria to break into the league of the top 20 most developed economies in the year 2020, the government must exhibit transparency in its dealings by not only publishing the KPMG report but also punishing culprits.

The unionist, therefore, condemned the recent unimaginable transfers and deployment of top management staff, senior officers and union leaders in the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) as a smokescreen devices to smartly douse the pressure from the Nigerian public and interest groups who are demanding for a probe to expose the KPMG Audit Reports on the fuel subsidy pay outs scandals.

He said, “While government feigns sincerity and commitment as the usual gimmick for soliciting the peoples’ understanding on the planned removal of fuel subsidy, there is no iota of reflection and commitment towards permanent stoppage of the ever increasing level of importation of petroleum products, but the stories have been more of the perpetuation of wanton wastages of public funds, and no justification of value for money.

“The continuous abysmally low capacity utilisation of the refineries is an ever-hurting national question still yearning for responses.”

The PENGASSAN General Secretary, Comrade Bayo Olowoshile, noted that unfortunately, the only picture being painted by the expenditures on the overhaul and turn-around maintenance of refineries’ operations and related infrastructures prejudiced the public against Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) staff.

He said, “There is a clear indication that overhaul of refineries, depots, jetties and vandalised/ageing pipelines, which was highly politicised, were never appropriately responded.

“Today, the refineries are still stifled by problems of power plants, Fuel Catalytic Cracking (FCC) units, Digital Control Systems Intermittent Supply Crude Oil, as well as vandalised/aged pipeline networks.

Employees are not magicians or angels.

The probe outcome would be another perpetual and forlorn wait as the buddies and cronies are unperturbedly determined to sweep the probe under the carpet.

PENGASSAN, therefore, demands for the immediate reversal of PPPRA personnel transferred to other government agencies and institutions by the executive secretary and the immediate stoppage of the “Sole Administrator status” subterraneous granted to the newly appointed Executive Secretary of PPPRA.