By Oluwakemi Kindness
The House of Representatives has given the HydroCarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) seven days to respond to audit queries involving more than ₦400 billion in its operations.
The ultimatum followed a resolution by the House Public Accounts Committee (PAC) at a public hearing attended by 27 members on Monday.
The committee directed HYPREP’s Programme Coordinator to appear before it and provide explanations on the findings contained in the 2021 and 2024 Audit Reports of the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation.
The committee’s Chairman, Rep. Bamidele Salam, said the latest invitation is the final warning after HYPREP failed to honour four previous invitations.
He said the agency must appear before the committee by Monday, October 12, 2026, or the House would use its powers to compel the appearance of its accounting officer.
The committee also summoned the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ogoni Remediation Trust Fund over issues relating to the management of funds for the cleanup of Ogoniland.
The lawmakers will also seek explanations on the $1 billion reportedly contributed towards the Ogoni cleanup following the exit of the Shell Petroleum Development Company.
This includes a claim by Renaissance Energy Ltd that it contributed more than $900 million to the fund.
The audit findings also raised questions over access to project records, with the 2024 report stating that HYPREP denied access to documents and records relating to projects worth ₦27.5 billion.
Another major query concerns ₦7.2 billion reportedly paid for contracts that were poorly executed.
The 2024 Audit Report also flagged an unverified payment of ₦1.5 billion as compensation.
The committee is further examining a ₦986 million consultancy payment without evidence that the service was carried out, as well as ₦260 million reportedly paid for a training programme without evidence of execution.
Other findings include ₦931 million in extra-budgetary expenditure, ₦315 million paid for training and ₦268 million paid without prepayment audit.
The reports also queried the non-deduction of statutory taxes, including $2.1 million and ₦32 million, as well as the engagement of external solicitors for ₦31.8 million without approval from the Attorney General.
The committee will also examine alleged duplication of services involving contracts worth ₦182 million and duplication of monitoring and evaluation functions valued at ₦507 million.
The audit reports further raised concerns over ₦43 million paid for advertisements without evidence of performance, crude oil recovered from a remediation site without documentation and the continued stay in office of an officer after the expiration of the secondment period.
HYPREP was also faulted for failing to submit its audited accounts to the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation between 2017 and 2021.
The committee said the agency and the Ogoni Remediation Trust Fund would be expected to address the audit issues and provide clarification on the management of funds allocated to the cleanup.
