By George Ozalla
The Senate Public Accounts Committee (SPAC) has given four oil companies 48 hours to appear before it and respond to queries arising from the 2021, 2022 and 2023 Oil and Gas Industry Audit Reports of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).
The committee, chaired by Senator Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, gave the directive on Tuesday during its continued consideration of the audit reports, which contain findings on oil and gas revenues, royalties, taxes, gas flaring obligations, remittances and other financial transactions involving operators and government institutions in the petroleum sector.
The companies affected are Seplat Energy Plc, Network E&P Nigeria Limited, All Grace Energy Limited and Aradel Energy Limited. Their managing directors were directed to appear before the committee on Thursday to personally respond to the issues raised against their companies.
Dankwambo said the directive became necessary because some of the companies had failed to honour previous invitations by the committee. He specifically expressed concern over the repeated absence of the Managing Director of Network E&P Nigeria Limited, which had reportedly failed to appear before the committee on two occasions.
The chairman directed the Managing Director of Network E&P to appear without fail on Thursday, warning that failure to comply would lead to the invocation of the legislative powers of the National Assembly.
“Having failed to honour the invitation of this committee two consecutive times, the Managing Director of Network E&P Nigeria Limited should appear before us unfailingly on Thursday this week or risk full invocation of legislative powers against him,” Dankwambo said.
The position of Network E&P that it was accountable to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), rather than the committee, also drew criticism from the lawmakers.
Senator Abdul Ningi said the response was unacceptable, stressing that the constitutional powers of the National Assembly allowed it to summon persons, companies and government agencies to provide explanations on matters under investigation.
“The Senate and, by extension, the National Assembly, is the custodian of Nigeria law that has power to invite anybody or agency for explanations on issues raised against them,” Ningi said.
He referred to Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution, which empower the National Assembly to investigate matters within its legislative competence and summon persons or institutions considered relevant to such investigations.
Senator Shehu Kaka Lawan also supported the committee’s position, urging the lawmakers to apply their constitutional powers where organisations repeatedly failed to honour legislative invitations.
Representatives of Seplat Energy appeared before the committee but explained that the company’s managing director was unavailable because of another official engagement. The committee, however, directed the chief executive to appear personally on Thursday.
All Grace Energy and Aradel Energy were similarly directed to send their managing directors to the next sitting to respond to the issues contained in the NEITI reports.
Dubri Oil Company Limited, which appeared before the committee, disputed a $3.025 million liability attributed to it in the NEITI audit report. The amount comprises about $2.378 million in gas-flaring obligations and $646,605.55 in oil production royalties.
Representing the company, Soyode Olusoji Clement told the committee that the liability arose from reconciliation issues between Dubri Oil and NUPRC when the information used for the audit was compiled.
According to him, the reconciliation had subsequently been completed and Dubri Oil no longer had an outstanding liability to NUPRC. The company submitted documents to support its position for the committee’s consideration.
The committee is expected to examine the documents alongside records from the relevant regulatory authorities before determining the status of the liability.
The proceedings form part of the Senate’s wider investigation of the NEITI audit reports, covering revenues, payments, remittances, royalties, taxes, production and other financial obligations in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
The committee had earlier invited more than 50 government institutions and oil and gas companies to respond to issues contained in the three audit reports. The investigation has involved NEITI, NUPRC, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation and other stakeholders in the petroleum sector.
The committee’s earlier sitting on August 3 was disrupted by the absence of some invited government agencies, including NEITI, NUPRC, the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Niger Delta Development Commission, leading to fresh invitations and threats of sanctions.
Among lawmakers who attended Tuesday’s sitting were Senators Osita Izunaso, Nasir Sani Zangon Daura, Tony Nwoye and Patrick Ndubueze, alongside other members of the committee. Izunaso subsequently moved for the adjournment of the proceedings, after which the committee adjourned further consideration of the audit queries to Thursday.
The four companies summoned by the committee are expected to appear on Thursday to respond to the queries raised against them and provide the necessary explanations and documents.
