NNPC gives conflicting figures for 2011 budget

How much was approved for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation as its budget for 2011?
This is the question officials of the corporation will have to answer at 12pm today when they return to defend their budget for 2012 before the National Assembly Joint Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream).

The hierarchy of the NNPC had on Wednesday given conflicting figures of how much was actually approved for the corporation as its 2011 budget.
While one figure puts it as $8.722 billion, another had it as $9.387 billion.
This was out of the $10.553 billion requested by the corporation.
The Group General Manager, National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), Mr. Morrison Anthony Fiddi, who represented the NNPC Group Managing Director, Mr. Austin Oniwon, was not certain if the NNPC received approval to spend $9.387 billion or $8.722 billion last year.
The Chairman of the committee, Senator Emmanuel Paulker, and the other members were livid at this development.
Paulker said: “You told us in your earlier presentation that you over-performed in certain areas. Yet, the chart you presented here to us doesn’t reflect anything like that. Where are the figures because the ones you have presented to us do not tally at all.
“This country belongs to all of us and we should be able to share ideas on how to move the country forward. Go and reconcile your figures and come back to us.”
The Vice-Chairman of the Senate Petroleum Resources (Upstream) Committee, Senator Kabiru Marafa, said of the presentation by the NNPC: “What are these tables and graphs for? You are supposed to tell us in details what you are going to earn and how you are going to spend them. Whenever we invite you, you bring beautiful, beautiful graphs and no one here is an engineer to decode and interpret all these graphs.
“Even though we have very limited time to finish all these things, we have to respect each other because what you are doing smacks of lack of respect for the National Assembly.
“We need you to give us specific details because even Mr. President doesn’t present graphs to us as budget estimates.”
When Fiddi requested for two more weeks to tidy the budget and report back to the committee, Paulker said: “The request is unacceptable. You are not even afraid you are saying this before the cameras. We are wasting time and money because of you. If Mr. President hears that from you, how do you think he would feel that you are the one delaying the budget? Tomorrow (today) is our last day for budget defence and we are supposed to defend your budget before the Appropriation Committee today.”