THE Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives, Bamidele Salam, has admitted that the committee has not concluded their investigation into the alleged missing funds in the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission.
A statement made available to News Point Nigeria on Saturday revealed that “The committee already announced that billions of naira are missing from the agency’s accounts in seven years, between 2015 and 2022.”
This newspaper reports that the executives of NUPRC have been summoned by the House of Representatives, given the purported discovery of an alleged massive financial hole in the organisation.
The statement reads, “The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives is seeking explanations from the NUPRC hierarchy after the lawmakers claimed they discovered missing funds running into billions of naira.
“The PAC has revealed, without concluding investigations, that it has uncovered over a N32 billion (N32,151,775,466.87) revenue loss through leakages in a document submitted to it by the NUPRC. The submissions covered revenue generated for the Federal Government in seven years, from 2015 to 2022.
“The Chairman of the Committee, Bamidele Salam, who announced this during an investigative session on Thursday, expressed serious concerns over reported revenue leakages and non-compliance with standard operating procedures. He stated that the panel discovered, among other things, that N909,392,169.74 was transferred directly to private accounts in Deposit Money Banks without following due process and the Treasury Single Account rules.
The Committee also showcased discrepancies, including over N15bn (N15,476,269,397.10) in transactions listed in Remita, that were absent from the NUPRC data, and another over N6bn (N6,332,212,384.25) in transactions from the NUPRC data that did not appear in Remita.”
It added that discrepancies in transactions running into millions were also discovered between Remita and the NUPRC.
“In addition, there were alleged value discrepancies in transactions between Remita and NUPRC, with over N388 million (N388,103,353.31) reported lower and over N900m (N909,392,169.74) reported higher in Remita.
“The House committee, not satisfied with the alleged discovered discrepancies, ordered the Chief Executive Officer of the agency, Gbenga Komolafe, to, along with other relevant officials, appear before it on Monday, November 4 to explain the inconsistencies in the report presented.
“However, when contacted by a journalist on the next steps of the committee, about recovering the missing funds, Salam confessed that the probe had not been completed.
“It’s an ongoing investigation and continues on Monday (November 4) where all parties will meet for reconciliation of figures”, the statement concluded.
Recall that in June 2024, the House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions summoned the managing director and senior management staff of the Nigeria AGIP Oil Company over a petition alleging the diversion of $72m.
The petition was raised against AGIP by a service company, De Coon Service Limited.