About 17 subsidiaries of the of the defunct Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, now Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and their accounting officers have been summoned to appear before the House of Representatives’ Committee on Public Accounts.
This is following a query written to these subsidiaries over an allegation of mismanagement of public funds running into several trillions of naira over the years.
Chairman of the committee, Oluwole Oke, issued the summons in a letter to Kyari, dated March 16, 2022, and titled, ‘Consideration of the Auditor General for the Federation’s Annual Report on Federation Account 2014-2019 Financial Year and Non-Rendition of Audited Account by the NNPC Subsidiaries Covering the Period 2014-2019 to the Auditor General Office.’
The subsidiaries include: the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited, Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited, Pipeline and Products Marketing Company Limited, Duke Oil Company Inc, West Africa Gas Limited, and Nidas Marine Limited, who have been summoned to appear on March 23, 2022.
Others are: Hyson (Nigeria) Limited, Nigeria Gas Company, National Engineering and Technical Company, National Petroleum Exchange, NNPC Pensions Limited, and Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company are to appear on Thursday, March 24, 2022.
Also, Port Harcourt Refining Company, the NNPC Retail Limited, Integrated Data Service Limited, National Petroleum Investment & Management Services, and Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency are expected to appear on Friday, March 25th.
Those summoned are expected to provide copies of their audited accounts from 2015 to 2021, in compliance with Financial Regulation No, 3210(v), and evidence of submission of copies to the Office of the Auditor-General Office for the Federation (OAuFG).
The query read in part: “‘Four hundred and twenty-three payments totalling ₦210,921,849.66 were made without payment vouchers and internal audit checks, contrary to Financial Regulations 601 and 1705, which stipulate that all payments must be vouched for, and the head of internal audit unit in all ministries/extra-ministerial offices and other arms of government shall ensure that 100% pre-payment audit of all checked and passed vouchers is carried out and the vouchers forwarded under security schedule directly to the appropriate central pay office for payment.”
Recall that official documents from the OAuGF had earlier revealed how the NNPC spent over N1,925,388,991.70 on 17 charter hire contracts in 2019 without adequate supporting documents.
The OAuGF 2019 annual report also indicated that the Company had no supporting documents like evidence of vessels transhipment of products, clearance certificate from appropriate inspection agency, among others to show that the payments made for the contracts were valid charges against public funds.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
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