The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority has come under fresh scrutiny after the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation uncovered over N432bn in unpaid debts, statutory levies and other outstanding obligations involving petroleum marketers.
The bulk of the liabilities, N431.01bn, consisted of legacy National Transport Average and bridging allowance debts owed to the petroleum sector regulator by marketers, according to the recently released Auditor-General’s 2024 Annual Report on Non-Compliance and Internal Control Weaknesses in Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
The report obtained from the OAGF office and analysed by our correspondent on Monday disclosed that Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies were linked to at least N1.39tn in recurring financial irregularities, control failures and breaches of public finance regulations in 2024.
The amount, representing the cumulative value of 30 monetary cross-cutting issues identified by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation, underscores the scale of recurring weaknesses in the management of public funds across government institutions.
The largest component of the audit queries was N882.75bn in unrecovered debts involving six MDAs, accounting for about 63 per cent of the total amount implicated in the cross-cutting issues.
