The Senate Committee on Public Accounts chaired by Senator Aliyu Wadada has threatened to sanction the external auditors of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL for shunning its summons on Tuesday, to address financial concerns of the national oil firm.
The Senate has summoned the external auditors for a scheduled meeting on Tuesday but they did not show up and did not provide any reasons.
The summons comes amid the alleged N80 billion found in an sacked NNPCL Director’s account and the pending probe of the immediate Group Managing Director/Chief Executive, Mele Kyari-led management to the tune of $2.96 billion.
The Public Accounts Committee was set to investigate the financial transactions of the NNPCL from 2017 to 2023 and the report has been laid before the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation.
Irked by the refusal to appear without any cogent reason, the Chairman of the Senate Public Accounts Committee, Senator Aliyu Wadada, speaking at a press conference warned that it was unacceptable for the invitation of the Committee not to be taken seriously.
He said the Committee had the constitutional responsibility to invoke the appropriate sanctions in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended.
Tensions rose in the committee room when none of the four external auditing firms engaged by NNPCL appeared before the committee, despite being formally invited to clarify what the committee described as “contentious issues”;; in the NNPCL’s annual and political financial statements.
Instead, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, appeared on their behalf, claiming he had been delegated to represent them.
The committee, however, rejected the appearance of the SAN, describing it as inappropriate and inconsistent with the rules of engagement.
According to the committee, “only the actual auditors—those who prepared the reports—are deemed fit to provide answers and clarifications.
“We found him not fit and proper as of today to stand before us as a representative of the external auditing firms,”;; Wadada stated.
The committee also listed the names of the external auditing firms involved, which include SIAO, VWC, Muktali Dangana & Co and lastly Ahmed Zakaria & Co. These firms, according to lawmakers, are expected to appear individually to respond to specific queries raised in the examination of NNPCL’s 2023 accounts.
