The Senate Public Accounts Committee has given external auditors of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) a one-week ultimatum to provide a detailed breakdown of the over N210 trillion contained in the company’s audited financial statements.
Recall that two major balance sheet entries at the centre of the dispute were given by the auditors which the lawmakers said the amount was not properly explained despite repeatedly engagements with the NNPC.
The committee led by it’s chairman, senator Ibrahim Dankwambo asked the auditors to provide detailed schedules which the auditors said the documents formed part of their working papers and requested about two weeks to retrieve them.
The committee vowed that the auditors must produce the schedules and working papers supporting the figures rather than refer the legislators back to the NNPC Ltd.
Senator Dankwambo wondered why the auditors could not produce documents to back the figures they had already certified.
A member of the committee, Senator Abdul Ningi, cited sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 constitution, stressing that the National Assembly has the power to summon any person and compel the production of documents relevant to an investigation.
Another member of the committee, Senator Adams Oshiomole, reminded the auditors that the figures getting public concern originated from their work.
The committee also faulted NNPC and the auditors for failing to reconcile the receivables and payables.
Lawmakers maintained that the auditors were appearing in their own capacity and that they were responsible for defending the audit opinions they issued.
The auditors argued that, under the professional practice, NNPC Ltd remains their principal and that explanations of the figures should ordinarily come from them.
Veteran journalist and recipient of A.B.C Yola, Reporter of the Year Award (1997), Hassan Umar Shallpella, works with WAP as a Regional Correspondence. He was trained at Institute of Mass Communication and Technology Jos and Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, Training School Lagos.He was a News desk Editor and a Correspondent at the Punch newspaper and till 2019, was the Deputy Editor ofThe Scope newspaper.
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