…AGAIN, CHARGE OIL CORP TO RENDER AUDITED ACCOUNTS TO OAuGF
The House of Representatives has pooh-poohed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiaries for violating extant financial regulations in which they have allegedly refused to render audited accounts to the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation (OAuGF) from 2014 to 2018. This, the House said, is worsened by the oil corporation’s refusal to honour its invitation to explain out things.
Following this, the House through its Committee on Public Accounts had threatened to invoke relevant sections of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to compel the corporation’s Group Managing Director, Mallam Mele Kyari, and heads of its 17 subsidiaries to respond to various invitation letters to them.
The agencies are: Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) Limited; Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company; Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) Limited; Duke Oil Company Inc.; West Africa Gas Limited; Nidas Marine Limited; Hyson (Nigeria) Limited and Nigerian Gas Company.
Others include: National Engineering and Technical Company; National Petroleum Exchange; NNPC Pension Limited; Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company; Port Harcourt Refining Company; NNPC Retail Limited; Integrated Data Services Limited; National Petroleum Investment & Management Services (NAPIMS) and Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).
In a letter dated December 20, 2019 and addressed to the NNPC Group Managing Director, the House had informed the corporation and its subsidiaries of the outcome of its plenary on December 10, 2019, during which it had mandated the committee to conduct “an in-depth investigative hearing on the deliberate and reckless refusal of non-treasury funded agencies of government to be audited by the OAuGF for the period under review, with the view to ensuring compliance with the provisions of the law.”
The lawmakers expressed dismay that the refusal followed directive from the NNPC, which allegedly directed the heads of its 17 subsidiaries not to honour the invitation sent to them, in breach of extant legislations and provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
The committee wrote a second letter, dated December 24, 2019, and signed by its Chairman, Wole Oke, and a third letter, dated January 10, 2020 and addressed separately to the NNPC Group Managing Director and heads of the 17 subsidiaries.
It invited them to appearance before the Public Accounts Committee on January 30, 2020, at 10 a.m, which never happened, although the corporation and its subsidiaries responded to the letters in their preferred way.
The committee said it was further flabbergasted at the NNPC’s latest letter, dated January 5, 2021, signed by Dr. K. A. Obateru, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, urging the committee to direct its enquiries about Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) to the NNPC Group Managing Director.
Obateru said in the letter: “We refer to your letter, dated December 7, 2020, to the Managing Director, Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC), on the committee’s constitutional mandate over matters relating to public finance management audit and expenditure and the subsequent resolution of the Honourable House to conduct an in-depth investigative hearing on the refusal of MDAs to render audited accounts to the Auditor General for the Federation.
“The Chairman is kindly invited to note that PHRC is a subsidiary company of the NNPC and all budget and audit matters are handled by the corporate headquarters for the NNPC Group. Consequently, kindly direct your enquiries as contained in your referenced letter to the Group Managing Director, NNPC.”/SHARE THIS
• Tags: House of Reps, NNPC, Mele Kyari, Wale Oke