The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has unveiled plans to to overhaul its risk management and corporate governance processes. Group Managing Director (GMD) of the corporation Maikanti Baru revealed this while opening the 2017 fraud week activities held in Abuja.
Kachikwu’s petition may hold some weight
Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu had in a leaked memo to President Muhammadu Buhari in October, accused the GMD of illegally awarding contracts and breaching rules and regulations. The corporation in its rejoinder, called the allegations baseless. The conflict between both parties led to an investigation by the Senate. Kachikwu later recanted on the alleged award of contracts, limiting his concerns to poor corporate governance
The reforms are overdue
The NNPC has had a history of corruption and laxity in due process. Military regimes in the country have often withdrawn revenue from the corporation without following due process.
A forensic audit conducted by PWC , released in 2015 indicted several staff for questionable transactions. The audit was commissioned following a report by the then Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Lamido Sanusi that $20 billion was missing from the NNPC’s coffers.
A past GMD of the corporation, Andrew Yakubu is currently facing money laundering charges. $9.8 million and 28,000 was recovered from a residence belonging to him in Sabon Gari, Kaduna following a tip off from a whistle blower.
While there has been a massive improvement since President Buhari assumed office, much more needs to be done. The corporation had recently denied that a planned dinner with members of the National Assembly was questionable, despite being under investigation by the Senate Committee on petroleum resources.
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