The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee will on Tuesday question officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and the Independent National Electoral Commission over audit queries involving more than N802.19bn.
The queries are contained in reports of the Auditor-General for the Federation covering the 2021, 2022, and 2023 financial years and relate to procurement, revenue management, payments, and compliance with financial regulations.
A member of the committee, who spoke anonymously, said the NNPCL would be asked to explain about N514bn in alleged financial infractions identified in the 2021 audit report, while INEC would respond to queries totalling N288.19bn in the 2022 report.
The NNPCL queries include alleged irregular deductions of N343.64bn from domestic crude oil sales, N83.66bn reportedly kept in a sinking fund account, N82.95bn in alleged unauthorised deductions from Federation revenue, and a N3.75bn shortfall linked to petroleum product sales.
For INEC, the Auditor-General’s 2022 report flagged N288.19bn in transactions linked to procurement, contractor payments, unretired advances, and failure to remit statutory deductions during the 2018–2019 period under former Chairman Mahmood Yakubu.
One of the issues involved N5.31bn allegedly paid for the supply of Smart Card Readers for the 2019 general election without prior approval from the Bureau of Public Procurement.
The committee, chaired by Bamidele Salam, is expected to demand documents and explanations from both agencies.
The hearings are part of the committee’s constitutional responsibility to examine the Auditor-General’s findings and hold public institutions accountable for the management of public funds.
However, an audit query does not by itself establish wrongdoing, as the affected agencies are entitled to respond and provide supporting documents before the committee reaches any conclusion.
