Senate probes missing N528bn in NNPC account

Kamarudeen Ogundele, Abuja

The Senate on Tuesday gave the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) 24 hours to provide information on an alleged N528 billion differential in Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC’s) financial statement.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Matthew Urhoghide (PDP, Edo South) gave the order during a public hearing on 2016, 2017, and 2018 Auditor’s General report at the National Assembly.

Urhoghide told the representative of the Accountant General of the Federation, Sylva Okolieaboh, who is Director of Treasury Single Account (TSA) to ensure strict compliance with the order.

The request followed deliberations on a query contained in a report under the committee’s consideration.

The query read, “First, it was observed from Note 1 to the financial statement that the breakdown of sources that made up the net receipts of N1.3 trillion from NNPC was not disclosed.

“Furthermore, we observed that the net receipt per an extract schedule from the Federation Account (Revenue from NNPC) showed a total receipt of N787 billion, resulting in a difference of N528 billion in comparison with N1.3 trillion earlier disclosed.

“The issue raised indicates that significant figures in respect of the Federal share of revenue were not captured and adequately disclosed in the financial statement and therefore that the financial statement is unlikely to be completed and accurate and fairly presented. Federal government’s share is 52.68 percent.”

In response to the order, Okolieaboh appealed to the committee to give them more time to bring the documents associated with the issue raised by the report.
But the committee rejected the appeal, insisting that the Office of the Accountant General must present the report within 24 hours unfailingly.

Urhoghide said that the committee would not tolerate any excuses on the matter. “We are not going to tolerate flimsy excuses or feign ignorance again, the one you can’t response we will sustain it,” he added.