Senate slams NNPCL, FIRS, others over refusal to respond to queries

The Senate Committee on Public Accounts on Tuesday took a swipe at managements of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and other agencies.

This was for the persistent refusal of the agencies to respond to queries raised against them in the 2019 Audit Report.

The Chairman of the committee, Senator Ahmed Wadada (SDP-Nasarawa West), made this known while speaking to newsmen in Abuja.

Wadada said going forward, any agency that refused to honour invitation to defend its queries would have its queries sustained and reported to the Senate in plenary by the committee.

He said the attitude of the affected public agencies on persistent refusal to respond to queries against them in audit report was frustrating and detrimental to aspirations and goals of the President Bola Tinubu-led government .

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According to him, apart from NNPCL, he listed the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Police, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission and Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment as culpable also.

Others, Wadada said, were FCT Internal Revenue Service, Nigeria Immigration Service, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, Ministry of Defence and Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited etc.

He added: “It is worthy to state that the committee commenced the consideration of the Audit Report in October 2023, with a view to presenting its report to the plenary.

“However, some agencies have willfully failed to honour invitations to defend their written responses to the audit queries as submitted to the committee’s secretariat.

“Besides the demand for submission of written responses to audit queries, part of the committee’s rules of engagement requires that accounting officers attend its public hearing.

“This is to respond to questions arising from the analysis of their submissions, which, in turn, forms a basis for informed decision on the matter by the committee.

“The committee is very displeased with the attitude of foot dragging by agencies who are by law expected to respond to parliamentary invitations and account for their actions.”