* Cbank leaked letter said $50 billion unaccounted for
* Finance, oil ministers held talks with cbank governor
* Probes have found state-oil firm to lack transparency
By Camillus Eboh
ABUJA, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Nigeria's central bank said onWednesday the state-oil company NNPC had not paid $12 billion itearned from oil sales into government accounts, not $50 billionas it had earlier stated.
The central bank said in a letter dated Sept. 25 toPresident Goodluck Jonathan that NNPC had failed to pay $49.8billion of revenue it earned from selling the country's oil inthe 18-months up to July this year into the federal governmentaccount, in violation of the law.
The letter was leaked to the media last week, promptingpublic outcry. Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, CentralBank Governor Lamido Sanusi and Petroleum Minister and NNPCChairwoman Diezani Alison-Madueke have since held talks.
Sanusi said on Wednesday that after the discussions it wasassured that NNPC was only responsible for paying $28 billionfrom oil exports and had submitted $16 billion to thegovernment, although $12 billion was still outstanding.
Oil accounts for 80 percent of government revenues and ashortfall of $12 billion would amount to more than a third ofthe central government's annual budget.
Nigeria's oil savings account has been depleted to around $3billion, from $9 billion a year ago, making Africa's secondlargest economy more vulnerable to any oil price fall.
"We're told that the shortfall has always been part of anongoing discussion with the finance and petroleum (Ministries)and NNPC. So this is where we are," Sanusi told reporters.
Former World Bank director Okonjo-Iweala said there had beensome misunderstandings which led to the central bank letterbeing written but no money was missing.
"There are some shortfalls that both the NNPC and ministryof finance have been working on for quite some time, but nomoney is missing," she said, without saying where the funds wereor when they would be paid back.
NNPC has been criticised for lacking transparency in recentyears but Sanusi appears to be one of the most high-profilefigures to have brought up the issue with Jonathan.
Nigeria's Senate has launched an investigation into thereports that NNPC has withheld government revenue.
Africa's most populous nation and its top oil producer isgrowing as an investment destination but corruption scandalsstill tarnish the country's image.
NNPC exports Nigeria's share of around 2-2.5 million barrelsper day of oil the country produces, mostly in joint ventureswith oil majors like Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil, Italy's Eni and Chevron.
A report in 2011 by Transparency International and RevenueWatch found NNPC to have the poorest transparency record out of44 national and international energy companies it evaluated.
