- The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) is facing fresh scrutiny after the Auditor-General of the Federation uncovered over N61.1bn in questionable payments and financial breaches.
According to an 808-page audit report submitted to the National Assembly, auditors identified 28 major irregularities involving payments in naira, dollars, pounds, and euros during transactions carried out between 2020 and 2021, under former GCEO Mele Kyari.
The report highlights weak internal controls, undocumented spending, unauthorised approvals, tax violations, and irregular procurement processes.
One of the major findings was NNPC’s failure to deduct the mandatory 1% Stamp Duty on payments worth N24.7bn and $52.98m, resulting in unpaid taxes exceeding N247m and $529,863. The NNPC claimed it was still seeking clarification from FIRS, a defence auditors rejected.
The Auditor-General ordered the recovery and remittance of all unpaid taxes.
Other flagged issues include:
$22.84m wrongly paid to a contractor under the Direct Sales Direct Payment (DSDP) scheme.
$1.8m paid for a vessel charter contract renewed without approval.
$2.01m and N478.5m released for the Atlas Cove Depot Optimisation Project without invoices or receipts.
$8.2m spent on custody transfer metres that were diverted from approved installation sites.
$1.03m paid to a company that had no contract with NNPC for vessel charter services.
$1.93m in questionable variations and overpayments on coastal vessel charter contracts.
Throughout the report, auditors criticised NNPC’s “weak documentation culture”, failure to provide verifiable SAP records, and reliance on “unsatisfactory explanations”.
The Auditor-General directed the current GCEO to recover all misapplied funds, remit them to the Treasury, and justify all irregular payments before the National Assembly.
The infractions occurred under Mele Kyari’s leadership before his removal earlier this year. He has been replaced by Bayo Ojulari.
