NNPC to publish first audited accounts in almost a decade

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari, has said that in keeping with the corporation’s commitment to be accountable and transparent, the NNPC would publish its audited accounts soon.

The GMD made the commitment during a courtesy visit by the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, (NEITI), Mr. Waziri Adio, to the NNPC Towers in Abuja on Tuesday.

Daily Trust reports that the corporation recently announced that it had updated its outstanding audit from 2011 to 2016 adding that the management inherited a total of 65 unaudited financial statements covering 2011–2014.

Kyari, however, urged the public to be wary of attempts to drag the corporation into politics in the guise of requests for information under the Freedom of Information law.

A statement by the corporation’s spokesman, Ndu Ughamadu, quoted the GMD as saying that though the corporation was committed to transparency and accountability to the Nigerian people, a line must be drawn between genuine requests for information and malicious attempts to drag it into politics using the FOI law as a cover.

“As you are aware, sometimes the requests are brazenly malicious, and they are laden with political undertones. NNPC finds it difficult to respond to such requests because it is mindful of falling into the trap of being drawn into politics or maligning others”, the GMD explained.

On the disclosure of contracts and contractors as requested by the NEITI boss, he said the biggest contracts in the corporation’s portfolio currently are the products supply contracts under the Direct Sales Direct Purchase (DSDP) scheme, adding that details of the contracts and the contractors would also be made public within this month.

On his part, the Executive Secretary of NEITI, Mr. Waziri Adio, said he was particularly impressed with the corporation’s robust deployment of modern information and communication platforms, especially the website, which he noted could be used as a transparency tool through pro-active disclosures.