OrderPaperToday- The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts (PAC) has commenced investigations into the circumstances surrounding the N1.93 billion expenditure by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Charter Services.
The investigation follows the committee’s possession of a 2019 report by the Auditor General for the Federation (OAuGF). Based on the report, the NNPC (now NNPC Limited) spent the said amount on 17 Charter Services without payment vouchers and adequate supporting documentation to back up the expenditure.
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Also, documents like evidence of vessels trans-shipment of products, clearance certificates from appropriate inspection agencies among others were absent. These documents it noted were to show that the payments were valid and charged against public funds.
The management of the NNPC was further indicted in what was described as ‘weakness in its internal control system,’ adding that this could have led to illegitimate payments.
According to the AuGF report, NNPC’s Management failed to provide any response to the audit query issued to them. It thus demanded that the Group Managing Director be asked to provide reasons why payments were made without adequate supporting documents.
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They are also to account for the N1.93 billion paid to 17 contractors for Charter Hire without adequate supporting documents and provide evidence of vessel transshipments of products, as well as clearance certificates from appropriate inspection agencies.
The Committee Chairman, Busayo Oluwole Oke (PDP, Osun) consequently directed the NNPC Limited GMD, Mele Kyari to appear before it; to defend the audit query.
He said Kyari should provide the list of all the 17 contractors who benefited from the contract, their legal status, the contract document, and other relevant documents.
