The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) is the most transparent national oil company in the world. This is according to Mele Kyari, the country’s state-owned oil and gas firm’s Group Managing Director (GMD).
Kyari made this revelation as he responded to the summoning by the House of Representatives’ Committee on Public Accounts.
Following the request by the lawmakers that Kyari should ensure the appearance of heads of NNPC subsidiaries before them for questioning, the state-owned oil and gas company chief, in a statement, said there’s nothing to hide, adding that compared to other national oil companies around the world, NNPC is the most-transparent.
He, however, promised that the committee’s requirements would be met and NNPC would continue to be accountable and transparent.
“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.
“No national oil company in the world is as transparent as we are. We shall comply with the House committee’s requirement,” Kyari said in the statement.
As reported on BizWatch Nigeria, the committee had on Wednesday, March 16, through a letter signed by its Chairman, Oluwole Oke (PDP: Osun), summoned the 17 subsidiaries of NNPC to respond to audit queries by the Auditor-General for the Federation over the operations of their finances between 2014 and 2019.
Having accused NNPC of shielding its 17 subsidiaries in the effort to get them to respond to the queries on their expenses from 2014 to 2019, the lawmakers’ committee has now asked Kyari to produce their heads at specific dates.
In a letter, in which the summons was made, the Chairman of the committee, Oluwole Oke stated that “pursuant to section 85, 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution as amended and Order XX Rule 6 of the House of Representatives Standing Order, I write to, again, request you to provide all the managing directors of the following 17 NNPC subsidiaries with their accounting officers to appear before the committee and answer all issues raised against them in the above subject matter.”
The subsidiaries include the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited (NPDC), Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited (KRPC), Pipeline and Products Marketing Company Limited (PPMC), Duke Oil Company Inc, West Africa Gas Limited (WAGP), and Nidas Marine Limited, which are to appear on Wednesday, March 23, 2022.
Also, Hyson (Nigeria) Limited, Nigeria Gas Company (NGC), National Engineering and Technical Company (NETCO), National Petroleum Exchange (NipeX), NNPC Pensions Limited (NPFL), and Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC) are to appear on Thursday, March 24.
Those to appear on Friday, March 25, are Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC), the NNPC Retail Limited, Integrated Data Service Limited (IDSL), National Petroleum Investment & Management Services (NAPIMS), and Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).
