The Nigerian Senate Committee on Public Accounts has summoned former executives of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and its current management to explain in detail the ₦210 trillion infractions in the company.
The Chairman Senate Committee, Senator Ahmad Aliyu Wadada gave the directive based on the powers by the Constitution and legislative rules to summon any chief executive of Government agencies for explanation on any financial dealings.
Senator Ahmad Aliyu Wadada said the legislative inquiry originated from the committee’s observed financial management lapses during the consideration of the Auditor General for the Federation’s annual reports
for the years ended 2019 and 2020.
He said since then the committee has been investigating the audited financial statement the of NNPCL from 2017 to 2023 and it lingered not because the committee abandoned it, but because we wanted to do a very thorough job so that the outcome will not be ambiguous anywhere.
The chairman further explained that in order to effectively carry out this assignment, the committee formally requested relevant information from NNPCL, which the company provided.
The committee subsequently reviewed the audited financial statements of the NNPCL covering the period 2017 to 2023, as prepared by its external auditors but not fully satisfied with it.
He outlined some of the gray areas that the committee is not satisfied with to include the retention fee, legal fee, and audit fee that have accrued to make up 103 trillion, Sundry receivable stood at 107 trillion which claimed to be part of funds in the defunct banks this were also never mentioned in the report and Alleged subsidy deduction against direct production cost thereby passed some resolutions
“the committee is not satisfied with all of the above information in the financial report by NNPCL, hence the need for the former executives of NNPCL along side the current executives to appear before the committee for more details”
The committee has assured it’s commitment to continue to engage with all the relevant stakeholder in the discharge of its constitutional responsibility and sanitised the oil industry sector for economic prosperity of Nigerians.
Cov/ Bashir M
