Audit query: NNPC is most transparent national oil company in the world, says Mele Kyari

Mele Kyari, group managing director (GMD), Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, says the national oil company is the most transparent in the world. 

He said this while speaking on a request by the house of representatives committee on public accounts to produce all the heads of the 17 subsidiaries of the company by April 5 over audit queries.

In 2021, the committee had asked the NNPC and its subsidiaries to provide it with proof of remittances from 2014 to 2019.

Also, in a letter dated March 16, 2022, Busayo Oke, chairman of the committee, had asked Kyari to ensure that the heads of the 17 NNPC subsidiaries appear before the committee “to answer all issues raised against them in the above subject matter”.

But at the resumed sitting on Tuesday, Kyari appeared before the committee  without the heads of the affected subsidiaries.

Speaking on the development, Kyari said the NNPC had nothing to hide in relation to its operations.

“We have nothing to hide, Mr. Chairman. We recognise that this company belongs to over 200 million Nigerians as its shareholders, thus we have been accountable and transparent and we will continue to remain so,” he said.

“No national oil company in the world is as transparent as we are. We shall comply with the house committee’s requirement.” 

The NNPC GMD also said the up-to-date audited accounts of the subsidiaries were submitted to the office of the auditor-general of the federation.

In response, the chairman of the committee said the NNPC cannot dictate to the lawmakers on how to conduct their activities. 

“Mr GMD sir, you cannot dictate to the parliament how it conducts its proceeding. The contents of the queries are not formed by the parliament, but by the office of the auditor-general of the federation who passed the report to the parliament for investigation, which is exactly what we are doing now,” Oke said.

“In line with the law of the land, when we received the reports, we have to invite the subsidiaries individually to state their own sides of case. The subsidiaries were mentioned in the queries one by one. In the spirit of fair hearing, the GMD must appear with the heads of the subsidiaries before this committee physically by this time next week or face sanctions.

“The companies belong to over 200 million Nigerians. For transparency and accountability sake, they should come before this committee and tell Nigerians how they are running the companies, except they have something to hide. That is the position of the parliament as the elected representatives of over 200 million Nigerians. 

“Our expectation today is that you will produce the heads of the subsidiaries as promised at the last sitting for them to answer their fathers’ names and nothing else. If they are here with you, we are ready for them and if not, pick a date that you will bring them to appear before the committee.”

Responding, Kyari agreed to present the affected heads of the subsidiaries by the next sitting.