By Oluwakemi Kindness
The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee will question officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and the Independent National Electoral Commission over audit queries involving more than N802.19bn.
The committee is scheduled to question the agencies on Tuesday, October 6, as part of its review of reports by the Auditor-General for the Federation covering the 2021, 2022 and 2023 financial years.
Reports said the NNPCL faces alleged financial infractions of about N514bn, while INEC is expected to explain alleged breaches of about N288.19bn.
According to the lawmaker, the queries against NNPCL include alleged irregular deductions of N343.64bn from domestic crude oil sales.
The Auditor-General’s report also reportedly flagged N83.66bn in miscellaneous revenue allegedly kept in a sinking fund account and N82.95bn in alleged unauthorised deductions from Federation revenue.
The committee will also question INEC over procurement procedures, payments to contractors and failure to remit statutory deductions.
The queries reportedly include transactions during the tenure of former INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, who has since been appointed an ambassador.
The committee member said lawmakers would examine spending dating back to the 2019 general election.
The Auditor-General’s 2022 report reportedly queried more than N5.31bn paid for the supply of smart card readers for the 2019 election without prior approval from the Bureau of Public Procurement.
The Public Accounts Committee, chaired by Bamidele Salam, is empowered to examine public accounts and investigate issues relating to revenue losses, statutory remittances and compliance with financial regulations.
The agencies are expected to provide documents and explanations on the audit queries.
An audit query does not by itself establish wrongdoing, as the affected institutions have the opportunity to respond and provide supporting evidence.
