The House of Representatives Monday directed Andrew Yakubu, Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and management team of all its subsidiaries to submit their financial reports for scrutiny.
The directive was issued sequel to the non-appearance of the top management team of NNPC and its subsidiaries at the ongoing investigative hearing on non-remittance of internally generated revenue to the Consolidated Fund.
Investigation conducted by the Committee headed by Abdulmumin Jibrin, specifically accused NNPC and its subsidiaries of failing to comply with the provisions of the Constitution and relevant financial regulations including the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007.
He said “as a result, the Committee wants to know how the accounts of the subsidiaries and their remittances to the main accounts are properly managed. We need to know if remittance figures reflected for each subsidiary are correct or not.
“While we were made to believe that the NNPC has not benefited from the Petroleum Support Fund (PSF), we are inviting the Petroleum Product Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) to come and substantiate that claim.” To this extent, Jubrin has issued a 24 hour ultimatum to Yakubu and management team of NNPC subsidiaries to appear before the Committee or face the wrath of the law.
While responding, Anthony Madichie, NNPC’s Group Executive Director (Finance), had told the Committee that the entire subsidiaries have no individual accounts of their own. He said “accounts of the subsidiaries are consolidated with that of the NNPC. There is only one account; there is no different account for the subsidiaries.”
On his part, Bernard Otti, NNPC Legal Adviser argued that the subsidiaries were set up by the NNPC and that the laws setting it up only recognized NNPC account and not the subsidiaries’ account. Representatives of some of the subsidiaries who appeared before the committee who failed to provide details of their financial records however argued that the invitation letters got to them late.
Similarly, members of the Committee queried the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) for spending all the internally generated revenues (IGR) without recourse to the Fiscal Responsibility Act, (FRA) 2007.
FAAN generated N112.3 billion between 2009 and 2011 and N27.8 billion in 2012. While the agency was requested to pay N6.9 billion to the government from what it generated in 2012, the organization said it is impossible because the agency cannot afford to.
