Senate summons Kyari, other ex-NNPCL bosses over N210tn expenditure
Senate summons Kyari, other ex-NNPCL bosses over N210tn expenditure
The Senate on Thursday summoned the immediate past Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, alongside the former Chief Financial Officer, Umar Isa, and a former Group General Manager of the National Petroleum Investment Management Services, Bala Wunti, over an alleged N210tn expenditure by the national oil company between 2017 and 2023 which lawmakers say has not been properly accounted for.
The Senate committee handling the probe also threatened to issue a warrant of arrest against the former top management officials of the oil firm if they fail to appear before it on a date to be communicated to them.
The committee further queried why the national oil company allegedly spent about N5bn on the change of name from the defunct Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
The resolutions to summon the former management team were taken during the committee’s meeting held on Thursday.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Aliyu Wadada Ahmed (Nasarawa West), who read the resolutions to journalists, said the summoned former management team should appear before the panel alongside the incumbent Group Chief Executive Officer, Bayo Ojulari.
Announcing the resolutions one after the other, Wadada said, “NNPCL should refund the sum of N210 trillion, being the combined sum of N103tn and N107tn, which were not properly accounted for as contained in the audit reports. The NNPCL should and must account for the two figures.
“The second resolution of the committee is that the NNPCL should reform to treasury all production costs charged against crude oil revenue for the period under review, since the NNPC and its subsidiaries, NAPIMS and others, do not directly produce crude oil.
“Thirdly, that the immediate past management of NNPCL and NAPIMS, which includes 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 present management with the entire body of the external auditors that served within the period under review.
“Fourthly, that the Auditor General for the Federation should carry out a forensic audit review of the audited financial statements of NNPCL for the period under review in line with section 85 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999 as amended)”.
He added that the committee, as outlined in the audit report, also inquired about the corporation’s expenditure of a substantial sum of N5 Billion on the name change from NNPC to NNPCL.
“This to us in the committee is unacceptable, and satisfactory explanations must be given,” he said.
According to him, the committee arrived at the resolutions following the inability of NNPCL to provide satisfactory responses to 19 questions raised by the lawmakers from the audit report.
“NNPCL, as a result of the questions that we asked, responded that the N103 trillion represented cumulative amounts expended by NNPCL Joint Venture Partners from JV Cash Calls 2017. For that, this response is unacceptable, and the figure of N103tn is still lingering and hanging on NNPC.
“The Subsidy receivables, according to the audited financial statement of NNPCL, stood at N107tn. As of December 2023, NNPCL recorded N107 trillion as sundry receivables, of which it claims part was owed by some different banks and other entities. When put together, NNPCL need to properly account for N210tn,” he explained.
Despite the concerns raised, the committee reaffirmed its support for the administration of Bola Tinubu, noting that the Federal Government was committed to promoting transparency, probity and accountability in the management of public fund
