By Gloria Ikibah
The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has given the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) seven days to appear before it and explain audit queries involving more than N400 billion.
The ultimatum followed the adoption of a resolution at a public hearing of the committee in Abuja on Monday, attended by 27 members.
Naijablitznews.com reports that the committee is probing queries contained in the 2021 and 2024 audit reports of the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation concerning the management of funds and activities of HYPREP.
Speaking at the hearing, the Chairman of the committee, Rep. Bamidele Salam, said the seven-day ultimatum was a final warning after the agency failed to honour four previous invitations.
He said failure by the Programme Coordinator of HYPREP to appear before the committee by Monday, 12 October 2026, will force the House to invoke its constitutional powers to compel his appearance.
The committee also extended the invitation to the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ogoni Remediation Trust Fund.
According to the audit reports presented before the committee, HYPREP failed to submit its audited accounts to the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation from 2017 to 2021.
The audit queries also include the alleged irregular award of contracts and non-deduction of statutory taxes amounting to $2.1 million.
The agency was further queried over a payment of N986 million for consultancy services allegedly without execution, an irregular payment of N315 million for training and N7.2 billion paid for poorly executed contracts.
Other queries relate to the payment of N268 million without pre-payment audit and the non-deduction of N32 million in statutory taxes.
The committee also raised questions over the engagement of external solicitors at a cost of N31.8 million without approval from the Attorney-General of the Federation.
HYPREP was further queried over crude oil recovered from remediation sites without documentation, the adoption of a progressive salary scale for contract staff and extra-budgetary expenditure of N931 million.
The audit report also flagged alleged duplication of services through contracts worth N182 million and duplication of monitoring and evaluation functions valued at N507 million.
There was also an alleged irregular payment of N43 million for advertisement without evidence of performance, as well as the continued stay in office of an officer after the expiration of the officer’s secondment period.
According to the 2024 Audit Report presented before the committee, HYPREP also made an unverified payment of N1.5 billion as compensation.
Other issues raised included the non-retirement of N14 million in cash advances, an irregular payment of N229.1 million and payment of N260 million for a training programme without evidence of execution.
The committee also raised concerns over the alleged denial of access to N27.5 billion worth of project documents and records.
Salam said the committee will also require HYPREP and the Ogoni Remediation Trust Fund to explain issues surrounding the $1 billion reportedly contributed for the clean-up of Ogoniland following the withdrawal of Shell Petroleum Development Company.
According to him, the agencies would also be required to clarify claims by Renaissance Energy Ltd that it contributed more than $900 million to the fund.
The committee’s action comes amid continued scrutiny of the management of funds and implementation of the Ogoni clean-up programme, with HYPREP expected to respond to the audit findings when it appears before the lawmakers.
The committee said the agency’s failure to honour the latest invitation by the 12 October deadline will result in further action by the House to secure the attendance of its accounting officer.
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