House grills NNPC officials over $49m refineries contract
The House of Representatives’ Ad Hoc Committee on the State of Refineries in Nigeria, on Thursday, faulted a $49m contract awarded to a firm, Technimont, to conduct integrity tests on refineries across Nigeria.
The contract was awarded to the firm by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, now Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited in 2019, for the first phase of rehabilitation of the refineries.
The Chairman of the committee, Ganiyu Johnson, at an investigative hearing held in Abuja where officials of the company were grilled, said the lawmakers had discovered infractions in the cause of probing into the current state of the refineries
Johnson also blamed the NNPC for failing to carry out regular turnaround maintenance of the facilities.
The committee asked both parties in the deal to submit all evidences of the contract, approval by the Federal Executive Council and proof of payments, including the level of work.
Meanwhile, the House Committee on Public Accounts, on Thursday, asked the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the Director-General of the Budget Office to furnish it with the copies of the budgets of the National Pension Commission from 2019 to 2022.
The Chairman of the committee, Oluwole Oke, at the investigative hearing of the committee over audit queries issued by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation, directed the Clerk to the Committee to write the OSGF and the Budget Office to get these details.
Oke issued the order after the committee grilled the representative of the Director-General of PENCOM, Anyim Nyerere.
The OAuGF had in an audit query alleged that PENCOM failed to render its audited financial accounts from 2013 till date.