A former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Umar Ajiya, said on Wednesday no money was missing in the company..
He was reacting to a claim that the company could not account for N210 trillion mentioned in the audit queries of the Auditor-General for the Federation.
Ajiya stated this on Wednesday in Abuja after he presented his report on the queries raised in the audit reports from 2017 to 2023.
He said: “Mr. Chairman and distinguished senators, I want to assure this committee and indeed, all Nigerians that no money is missing.
“Many of us appearing before this committee today have, over the past five or six years, consistently presented and defended the accounts and reports of the company.
“If any money had gone missing during our period of supervision, we would not have had the courage to publish our audited accounts.
“For over 44 years, the company’s accounts were either not prepared or, when prepared, were not made public. In many instances, they were not even made available to the auditor-general.
“We decided to change that culture by ensuring that the accounts were submitted to the auditor-general and published on our website for public scrutiny.
“We wanted Nigerians to examine them, ask questions and help restore trust in NNPC by moving away from the era of opacity.
“Having carefully reviewed the report, I observed that two key figures generated significant public concern.
“The first is the claim that N5.8 billion was spent to register the new company, NNPC Limited,” he stated.
The CFO described the claim as inaccurate, adding that the actual amount used for the registration was N2.9 billion, and was paid directly to two government agencies.
He said the money was paid to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), now known as Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS).
“This can be independently verified with both agencies,” he stated.
(Ripples)