March 29, (THEWILL) – The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. (NNPC), says it has nothing to hide and will comply with the request of the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts.
The disclosure by Malam Mele Kyari, Group Managing Director, came in the wake of the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts’ request to the company seeking the appearance of Heads of NNPC subsidiaries before the committee.
In a letter signed by Oluwole Oke (PDP: Osun), the Committee had on March 16, summoned the 17 subsidiaries of NNPC to respond to audit queries by the Audito-General for the Federation, over the operations of their finances between 2014 and 2019.
The NNPC GMD had in a letter to the panel chairman, Oluwole Oke, during the last sitting of last week, stated that he was engaged in a function on the theft of crude oil in the Niger Delta, hence his unavailability.
The committee had acceded to his request for an extension, fixing March 29 when it hoped Kyari would appear in person with relevant documents.
Speaking during his appearance, Kyari said that the NNPC had nothing to hide as it’s operations are being run in a transparent manner.
He said that no National Oil Company in the world is as transparent as the NNPC, noting that the company will continue to comply with the House Committee’s requirement.
He said, “We have nothing to hide, Mr Chairman. We recognise that this Company belongs to the 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.”
Since Kyari’s appointment as the 19th Group Managing Director of the NNPC in July 2019, he has successfully secured federation entitlements from production/fiscal arrangements and resolution of various disputes on Petroluem Sharing Contracts.
Kyari has also been able to champion the Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence under his TAPE Agenda, with the successful management of Direct Sales and Direct Purchase arrangement of petroleum products to ensure energy security.
The guiding principle of Kyari in managing the Corporation, has been the TAPE Agenda and this has been instrumental in the publication of the 2018, 2019 and 2020 financial statements of the Company to the public to show transparency.
Kyari has also been responsible for turning around the fortunes of the NNPC from 37 years of losses into making its first profit in the 2020 financial period.
Under Kyari’s watch at the NNPC, the company declared a Profit After Tax of N287bn in 2020 after losses were reduced from N803bn in 2018 to N1.7bn in 2019. This is unprecedented in the history of the NNPC.
In the last two years, Kyari has spearheaded the automation of the NNPC’s processes and systems; reduced its costs of operations and reposition the Company to the path where it will deliver value to Nigerians, in line with his management vision.
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