The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said it has recorded a $1.6bn savings from the arbitration between its flagship upstream subsidiary, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), and the Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Nigeria Limited.
Group Managing Director of the NNPC Dr. Maikanti Baru, who said this after he was conferred with honorary fellowship and patron of the Chartered Institute of Forensic and Investigative Professionals of Nigeria (CIFIPN) in Abuja, said the recovery was part of the numerous in-roads the corporation has made in terms of fraud detection, prevention and control.
Baru said under the NNPC anti-corruption committee which he once chaired, the NNPC was able to get all its staff and business partners to know what constitutes corruption and the consequences that follow. The GMD said a lot of sanity has been restored in the system ever since.
“Recently, we were able to get the Atlantic companies that were fleecing the NNPC subsidiary NPDC. We got an award for them to refund $1.6bn to NPDC through the arbitration process. This is just one,” he said.
The NNPC boss said the corporation has also been able to stem some high profile court cases it believed had been set up fraudulently to defraud the NNPC. He said most of the cases were brought to the fore through fraud and forensic investigation which helped the corporation to get value for money.
“We have had cases for example NNPC vs IPCO where they are demanding over $400m because of their activities we were able to settle out of court with them for $37.5m which is a saving of less than 10 per cent of the demand,” the GMD said.
Speaking earlier, the pro-tem president of the institute, Dr. Enape Victoria Ayishetu said the award was a sincere appreciation of the GMD for being an anti-corruption champion in NNPC.
“We believe that NNPC should be one of the organisations free of corruption having somebody like you who is a champion of anti-corruption. This indeed is commendable and our institute is proud to be associated with you and partner with your organisation to ensure that we jointly prevent fraud, corruption and cybercrimes,” she said.
