Our Staff
The Senate Public Accounts Committee has given the external auditors of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited just one week to provide answers for over N210 trillion in unreconciled figures found in the company’s audited financial statements.
Committee members said the auditors who signed off on the accounts cannot distance themselves from them now that questions have been raised. According to the panel, responsibility for the numbers lies with those who certified them, not only with NNPCL management. 
The directive was issued during a heated session yesterday. Committee Chairman, Ibrahim Dankwambo, rejected repeated efforts by the auditors to redirect questions back to the NNPCL. He insisted that since the firms validated the statements, they must also explain how the figures were reached.
At the center of the dispute are two massive entries. The accounts show N107 trillion listed as receivables and N103 trillion listed as payables. Lawmakers noted that neither the company nor its auditors had provided the breakdowns needed to verify those amounts.
The committee complained that no schedules were presented identifying the specific transactions, counterparties, or the calculations behind the totals. Without that documentation, the lawmakers said, it is impossible to determine if the figures are accurate.
When asked to produce the supporting documents, the auditors told the committee the schedules were part of their working papers and asked for about two weeks to retrieve them. That request was immediately turned down.
Dankwambo questioned the delay. He argued that audited financial statements must be backed by clear schedules showing how each figure was 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 pushed back, saying NNPCL remains its client and that detailed explanations should come from the company. It recalled an earlier agreement that NNPCL officials would address the figures. The committee dismissed that argument, stating that as a company wholly owned by the Federal Government, NNPCL cannot claim commercial secrecy. “NNPCL belongs to the Nigerian people, not to private shareholders. Parliament has every constitutional right to examine its accounts,” a lawmaker said. The auditors were then discharged and ordered to return within one week with the required documentation.
