The Federal Government has uncovered over ₦60 billion tied to 28 financial irregularities in the operations of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
A breakdown published in the Auditor-General’s 2022 Annual Report on Non-Compliance (Volume II) shows undocumented questionable payments involving ₦30.1bn, $51.6m, £14.3m, and €5.17m — totalling about ₦61.1bn when converted to naira.
The report accuses NNPC Limited of unauthorised virements, tax violations, irregular procurement processes, abandoned projects, weak internal controls, and unverified settlements. The findings have been forwarded to the National Assembly.
“These findings highlight systemic weaknesses that continue to expose public funds to avoidable risk. Where documents were not provided, payments were unjustified. Where approvals were absent, expenditure breached the law. Recovery and sanctions must follow,” the Auditor-General’s office stated.
Despite financial regulations requiring full documentation (paragraph 603(1)), the Auditor-General said these rules were violated at the NNPC London Office during the 2021 financial year.
The audit revealed that £14,322,426.59 was spent on personnel, fixed contract expenses, and other operations, but auditors were not given the documents needed to verify how the funds were used.
According to the Auditor-General, the absence of records reflects “weaknesses in the internal control system,” leaving the organisation vulnerable to diversion and misuse of funds.
NNPC management insisted the London Office operated under an approved budget and maintains detailed records, adding that the audit query lacked specifics. However, the Auditor-General rejected the explanation and maintained that the corporation must provide full accountability.
The report recommends that the Group Chief Executive Officer appear before the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly to explain the expenditure and that the entire amount be recovered and returned to the Treasury if proper documentation is not provided. Sanctions should also apply where required under financial regulations.
Other flagged transactions include €5.165m paid to a contractor without supporting records, as well as irregular dollar transactions amounting to $51.67m across multiple audit issues — including questionable payments, delayed procurement, and unsubstantiated settlements.
In naira-denominated transactions totalling ₦30.1bn, auditors cited payments made without approvals or documentation, irregular staff payments, unauthorised virements, abandoned projects, and failure to remit legally required surpluses.
Several procurement violations were also highlighted, including inflated contract variations, irregular vessel substitution under a time-charter agreement, improper emergency procurement, unjustified consultancy payments, and renewals that bypassed competitive bidding.
The Auditor-General’s office called for immediate recovery of unsupported payments, proper remittance of statutory surpluses, and strict sanctions for officers involved in what it described as “widespread violation of extant financial regulations.”
It concluded: “Where officers fail to provide the required documents, the sums shall be recovered from them directly.”