The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives will on Monday and Tuesday question officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and the Independent National Electoral Commission over alleged financial breaches totalling more than N802.19bn.

The allegations are contained in reports of the Auditor-General for the Federation covering the 2021, 2022 and 2023 financial years, which raised queries over procurement procedures, revenue management, payments and compliance with financial regulations by government agencies.

The committee, chaired by the member representing Ede North/Ede South/Ejigbo/Egbedore Federal Constituency of Osun State, Bamidele Salam, is empowered under Sections 85, 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, as well as Order 20, Rule 6 of the House Rules, to examine public accounts and investigate issues relating to revenue losses, non-remittance of statutory funds and breaches of financial regulations.

Speaking exclusively with The PUNCH, a member of the committee, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on its behalf, said the Auditor-General’s reports had raised questions against the NNPCL in its 2021, 2022 and 2023 audits.

He said INEC would also be required to provide explanations on issues raised in the Auditor-General’s 2022 and 2023 reports.

He said, “On Tuesday at the National Assembly Complex, the House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee will be questioning several agencies.

“As a matter of fact, we are starting on Monday, October 5, with some agencies including the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Federal Capital Territory Judicial Service Commission, Federal Colleges of Education, Okene and Gombe and the University Teaching Hospital, Ilorin. There are others I have not mentioned.

“Tuesday is special because we hope to have in the House the accounting officers and subject matter experts from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and the Independent National Electoral Commission.

“For the NNPC L, I am aware that the Auditor General’s Report of 2021 raised alleged financial infractions of about N514bn, while in the case of INEC, we shall be looking at clarifications on alleged financial breaches of about N288.19bn as contained in the 2022 Auditor General for the Federation audit query.”

According to findings by our correspondent, the N514bn queried against the NNPCL includes alleged irregular deductions of N343.64bn from domestic crude oil sales.

The Auditor-General’s report also reportedly flagged N83.66bn allegedly warehoused from miscellaneous revenue in a sinking fund account, as well as N82.95bn in alleged unauthorised deductions from Federation revenue.

A further N3.75bn was reportedly flagged as a shortfall arising from the sale of petroleum products.

The committee is expected to require the NNPCL to provide supporting documents and explanations on the transactions and respond to the audit queries raised by the Auditor-General.

On INEC, the lawmaker said the commission had several questions to answer over procurement processes, payments to contractors and failure to remit statutory deductions.

He said the queries covered transactions during the tenure of the former INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, who has since been appointed an ambassador.

“There are several audit queries concerning procurement procedures, payments made to contractors as well as failure to remit statutory deductions by the commission during the administration of the former INEC Chairman (Prof Mahmood Yakubu) who is now an ambassador,” he said.

Asked to reveal the alleged misdeeds of the electoral umpire, the lawmaker was evasive, admitting only that “there are questions to be asked on money spent starting from the 2019 general election.”

The Auditor-General’s 2022 Report stated that more than N5.31bn was allegedly paid for the supply of smart card readers for the 2019 general election without the prior approval of the Bureau of Public Procurement.

The smart card readers were deployed by INEC as part of the technology used in the 2019 general election before the commission subsequently introduced the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System for the 2023 polls.

The PAC’s proceedings form part of its constitutional responsibility to examine the findings of the Auditor-General and require public institutions to account for expenditure and address outstanding audit queries.

An audit query, however, does not by itself establish wrongdoing, as the affected agency is entitled to respond and provide evidence or explanations before the committee reaches any conclusion.

Other agencies listed for questioning by the Salam-led committee on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, include the National Mathematical Centre, National Power Training Centre, National Research Institute for Chemical Technology and the National Biotechnology Research and Development Agency, among others.

Efforts to obtain the comments of Salam were unsuccessful, as calls made to him were not answered.

The Osun lawmaker also did not respond to messages sent to him on WhatsApp. (The PUNCH)

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