By Mercy Gadia
The Senate Public Accounts Committee on Wednesday issued a one-week ultimatum to external auditors of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to account for over N210 trillion in unreconciled figures contained in the company’s audited financial statements.
The committee, chaired by Senator Ibrahim Dankwambo, handed down the directive during a tense hearing at the National Assembly, where lawmakers rejected attempts by the auditors to shift responsibility for the figures to the NNPCL.
The disputed amounts include N107 trillion recorded as receivables and N103 trillion listed as payables in the company’s audited accounts.
Lawmakers said the figures remained unexplained as neither the NNPCL nor its auditors had provided detailed schedules identifying the transactions, counterparties, or the basis of the calculations.
The auditors told the panel that the supporting schedules formed part of their working papers and requested about two weeks to retrieve the documents, a request that was rejected by the committee.
Dankwambo questioned the auditors’ inability to immediately provide supporting documentation for figures they had certified.
“When you have figures in audited financial statements, there must be schedules showing exactly how those figures were derived. If those schedules already exist in your working papers, why do you need additional time before presenting them to this committee?” he asked.
The audit firm, however, maintained that the NNPCL remained its client and that detailed explanations should ordinarily come from the company, recalling that lawmakers had earlier agreed that NNPCL officials would address the figures.
The position drew sharp criticism from the panel, which insisted that auditors could not evade responsibility for accounts they had endorsed.
A member of the committee said, “NNPCL belongs to the Nigerian people, not to private shareholders. Parliament has every constitutional right to examine its accounts, and no confidentiality agreement can override that responsibility.”
The auditors were subsequently discharged and directed to reappear within one week with the requested documentation.