The Senate Committee on Public Accounts has given Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPCL) three weeks to respond to queries raised on the unaccounted N210 trillion.
The Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (OAuGF) had, in audit reports from 2017 to 2023, alleged that NNPCL had been unable to account for the funds.
The committee headed by Senator Ahmed Wadada had, however, insisted that the amount in question was neither stolen nor missing, but yet to be accounted for.
The committee gave a three-week window for explanations after accepting the NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer, Bayo Ojulari’s apology for failing to appear before the lawmakers.
Ojulari had, after his apology to the committee, said he needed more time to dig into the technicalities and perspectives of the issues to give a satisfactory response to the 19 queries raised in the audit reports.
He said: “I’m just over 100 days in the office as the GCEO of NNPCL. I still need time to do further digging, given the perspectives I have heard now on the issues.
“This is coming during a huge national assignment, your explanation now changes my perspective about the issues.
“I need to understand the issues myself so I can respond appropriately. I will get a team, and please get the details properly reconciled so we can work to provide answers to the queries.
“In doing this, I will surely engage the external auditors and other relevant groups.”
Though he requested for four weeks, the committee granted him three weeks, which, according to it, is enough for the response expected from NNPCL.
In his remark, Wadada said the unaccounted N210 trillion was in two components of N103 trillion liabilities and N107 trillion assets.
“There is none out of the 18 or 19 questions we have on NNPCL from us as a committee, nor did it come from the executive or the judiciary.
“They are questions extracted from the audited financial statement of the NNPCL by the auditor-general covering 2017 to 2023.
“Also, this committee had not, at any time, said the N210 trillion in question, as far as the queries are concerned, was stolen or missing.
“What the committee is doing is a required investigation on queries raised in the report, in line with its constitutional mandate.
“Therefore, the committee is giving NNPCL three weeks to forward written responses to it on all 19 queries, after which the GCEO will be invited along with other management staff for physical appearance and defence,” he stated.