The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives will on Monday and Tuesday question officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, over alleged financial breaches totalling more than N802.19 billion.
The allegations are contained in reports of the Auditor-General for the Federation covering the 2021, 2022 and 2023 financial years, which raised queries relating to procurement, revenue management, payments and compliance with financial regulations.
The committee, chaired by the member representing Ede North, Ede South, Egbedore and Ejigbo Federal Constituency of Osun State, Bamidele Salam, is empowered by Sections 85, 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, to examine public accounts and investigate issues involving revenue losses, non-remittance of statutory funds and breaches of financial regulations.
A member of the committee, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorised to speak on its behalf, said the Auditor-General’s reports raised questions against the NNPCL in its 2021, 2022 and 2023 audits, while INEC would be required to respond to queries contained in the 2022 and 2023 reports.
According to the lawmaker, the committee will on Monday, October 5, commence hearings involving several agencies, while officials of the NNPCL and INEC are expected to appear before it on Tuesday, October 6.
He said the 2021 Auditor-General’s report raised alleged financial infractions of about N514 billion against the NNPCL, while INEC would be asked to clarify alleged financial breaches of about N288.19 billion contained in the 2022 audit report.
The NNPCL queries reportedly include alleged irregular deductions of N343.64 billion from domestic crude oil sales.
The Auditor-General also flagged N83.66 billion allegedly warehoused from miscellaneous revenue in a sinking fund account, N82.95 billion in alleged unauthorised deductions from Federation revenue and another N3.75 billion shortfall arising from the sale of petroleum products.
The committee is expected to demand supporting documents and explanations from the NNPCL on the transactions and the issues raised in the audit reports.
For INEC, the queries reportedly concern procurement procedures, payments to contractors and failure to remit statutory deductions during the tenure of former Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, who has since been appointed an ambassador.
The lawmaker said there were also questions concerning expenditure dating back to the 2019 general election.
The Auditor-General’s 2022 report reportedly stated that more than N5.31 billion was paid for the supply of smart card readers for the 2019 general election without prior approval from the Bureau of Public Procurement.
The smart card readers were deployed by INEC during the 2019 elections before the commission introduced the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, for the 2023 polls.
Other agencies expected to appear before the committee on Tuesday include the National Mathematical Centre, National Power Training Centre, National Research Institute for Chemical Technology and National Biotechnology Research and Development Agency, among others.
The proceedings are part of the committee’s constitutional responsibility to examine the Auditor-General’s findings and require public institutions to account for public expenditure and address outstanding audit queries.
However, an audit query does not by itself establish wrongdoing, as the affected agencies are entitled to provide explanations and supporting documents before the committee reaches any conclusion.
Efforts to obtain the comments of the committee chairman, Bamidele Salam, were unsuccessful, as calls and messages sent to him were not answered.
