The Senate Public Accounts Committee on Wednesday gave the external auditors of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited one week to provide a detailed breakdown of over ₦210tn recorded in the company’s audited financial statements but which lawmakers said remained unexplained, insisting that the auditors must account for figures they certified rather than refer the committee back to the national oil company.
The directive came during the committee’s ongoing investigation into NNPC Ltd.’s audited financial statements, as lawmakers intensified scrutiny of the state-owned oil firm over what they described as unresolved discrepancies involving approximately ₦107tn classified as receivables and another ₦103tn recorded as payables.
The Senate had in recent weeks questioned the huge balance sheet entries, maintaining that despite several engagements with NNPC Ltd., neither the company nor its auditors had satisfactorily reconciled the transactions underlying the figures.
At Wednesday’s hearing, representatives of the external audit firm told the committee that the schedules supporting the disputed figures formed part of their audit working papers and requested additional time, saying they might require about two weeks to retrieve the documents.
