Mele Kyari, the former Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of Nigerian National Petroleum business Limited (NPCL), Umar Ajia Isa, the Chief Financial Officer, and Dr. Bala Wunti were called before the Senate on Thursday for unaccounted-for N210 trillion spent by the business between 2017 and 2023.
The Red Chamber questioned why the National Oil Company spent an astounding N5 billion on changing its name from NNPC to NNPCL, among other things, and threatened to issue an arrest warrant against the summoned former management team of NNPCL if they failed to show up on a date that would be sent to them shortly.
The Senate passed these resolutions on the summoning of the NNPCL’s immediate past top management team during its Public Accounts meeting on Thursday.
The current GCEO, Engineer Bayo Ojulari, shall lead the summon on the former NNPCL management team, according to the committee’s chairman, Senator Aliyu Wadada Ahmed (Nasarawa West), who read out the resolutions while briefing Senate correspondents.
Senator Wadada announced the resolutions one by one, saying:
NNPCL is required to reimburse N210 trillion, which is the total of N103 trillion and N107 trillion that were improperly recorded in the audit reports.
Since the NNPC and its subsidiaries, NAPIMS and co., do not directly produce crude oil, the committee’s second resolution calls on the NNPCL to reform to treasury all production expenses charged against crude oil revenue for the period under review.
“3. The immediate past management of NNPCL and NAPIMS, namely Mele Kyari as the then-GCEO, Umar Ajia Isa as the then-CFO, and Bala Wunti as the then-GGM, NAPIMS, should and must appear before the committee and be led by the current management with the entire body of external auditors who served during the period under review.”
Fourth, in accordance with section 85 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s constitution (1999 as amended), the Auditor General for the Federation should conduct a forensic audit examination of the audited financial statements of NNPCL for the period under review.
According to the audit report, he said, the committee questioned how NNPC spent an astounding N5 billion on changing its name from NNPC to NNPCL. He stated, “This is unacceptable to us in the committee, and satisfactory explanations must be given.”
He claims that the committee’s resolutions were the result of NNPCL’s failure to provide adequate responses to the 19 issues addressed to it in the audit report.
In response to our concerns, NNPCL stated that the N103 trillion was the total amount that NNPCL Joint Venture Partners had spent from JV Cash Calls in 2017. Because of this, the N103 trillion amount is still hovering over NNPC, and this response is unacceptable.
According to NNPCL’s audited financial statement, the amount of subsidy receivables was N107 trillion. As of December 2023, NNPCL has N107 trillion in assorted receivables, some of which it alleges were owed by various banks and other organizations.
NNPCL must accurately account for N210 trillion when combined, he clarified.
However, the committee reaffirmed its legislative support for the federal government led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which it claims is making every effort to guarantee accountability, integrity, and transparency in the administration of public funds.
