The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Sunday, said it has completed the audit of its financial statements up until December 31, 2016, assuring that its accounts were up to date.
The NNPC, in a statement in Abuja, said audited backlog had since been formally approved by the Board of the corporation in line with extant laws governing the operations of the national oil company.
Mr. Isiaka AbdulRazaq, Chief Financial Officer/Group Executive Director (CFO/GED), Finance & Accounts of the NNPC, said the delivery of the audited financial statements would help foster better relations with stakeholders and further promote transparency and accountability in the corporation
AbdulRazaq said the drive to achieve the clean slate dated back to August 2015, when the current management of the Finance & Accounts Directorate took over the mantle of leadership and inherited a total of 65 unaudited financial statements for NNPC Group Corporate and its subsidiaries, covering 2011 – 2014.
He, however, exonerated the past management of the NNPC from any wrongdoings, saying that theor inability to audit the accounts as at when due maybe due to circumstances beyond their control.
He said, “There were, undoubtedly, challenges that led to the backlog which may have been beyond the control of the previous managements. However, the important factor was not to look to the past. We saw an opportunity to challenge the problem and resolved to clear the arrears in the shortest possible time.
“Moving swiftly, the NNPC Management constituted a Project Steering Committee (PSC) under the Chairmanship of AbdulRazaq which met on a weekly basis with the auditors and all relevant stakeholders to identify and isolate key challenges and give them priority attention.
“With this approach, Management achieved the first step of concluding the audit of the 2011 – 2012 financial positions and presented same to the Board in 2016 and in recognition of that modest achievement, the NNPC Board further mandated Management to clear the remaining outstanding reports for 2013-2016 and the result today is the delivery and Board approval of the audited Group Financial Statements as at 31 December 2016.”
In another development, Mr. Luke Anele, Managing Director of the Nigerian Pipeline and Storage Company (NPSC), has revealed plans by the company which was created out of the old Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), to embark on comprehensive audit of the over 5000 kilometers of petroleum products and crude oil pipelines under its watch.
According to Anele, the project which has already been approved by the NNPC Management is to be executed by the National Engineering and Technical Company (NETCO) an upstream subsidiary of the NNPC Group.
He said, “It covers the conduct of integrity test on crude pipelines, the products pipelines and our depots, with special emphasis on refinery attached depots and refinery evacuation lines,’’ he said.
The NPSC MD said the outcome of the project would guide the company in arriving at informed decisions and enable appropriate strategies in the planned Private Public Partnership arrangement for the pipelines.
