The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee will question officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and the Independent National Electoral Commission over alleged financial breaches totalling N802.19bn.
The committee will begin its investigations on Monday and Tuesday, based on queries contained in the Auditor-General for the Federation’s reports for the 2021, 2022 and 2023 financial years.
Of the amount, about N514bn in alleged financial infractions was attributed to the NNPCL, while INEC is expected to explain alleged breaches of about N288.19bn contained in the 2022 audit report.
The NNPCL queries reportedly include alleged irregular deductions of N343.64bn from domestic crude oil sales, N83.66bn allegedly kept in a sinking fund account and N82.95bn in alleged unauthorised deductions from Federation revenue.
INEC, meanwhile, faces questions over procurement procedures, payments to contractors and failure to remit statutory deductions. The commission was also reportedly queried over more than N5.31bn allegedly spent on 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 require both agencies to provide supporting documents and explanations for the transactions flagged by the Auditor-General.
The committee stressed that audit queries do not automatically establish wrongdoing, as the affected agencies are entitled to respond and provide evidence before any conclusions are reached.
