By Aaron Ossai
The House of Representatives has given the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) seven days to appear before its Public Accounts Committee, (PAC) and explain alleged financial infractions involving more than N400 billion raised in audit queries.
The ultimatum was issued on Monday following HYPREP’s repeated failure to honour invitations by the committee to respond to queries contained in the 2021 and 2024 audit reports of the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.
Chairman of the committee, Rep. Bamidele Salam, said the latest invitation was the final warning after the agency ignored four previous invitations.
He directed the HYPREP Programme Coordinator to appear before the committee on or before Monday, October 12, 2026, warning that failure to do so would compel the House to invoke its constitutional powers to enforce the officer’s appearance.
The committee also summoned the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ogoni Trust Fund to respond to questions relating to the management of the fund.
Among the issues raised in the audit reports is HYPREP’s alleged failure to submit its audited accounts to the Office of the Auditor-General between 2017 and 2021.
Other queries include the alleged irregular award of contracts and non-deduction of $2.1 million in statutory taxes; payment of N986 million for consultancy services without evidence of execution; and irregular payment of N315 million for training.
The agency was also queried over N7.2 billion allegedly paid for poorly executed contracts, N268 million paid without pre-payment audit and failure to deduct N32 million in statutory taxes.
Further queries concern the engagement of external solicitors at a cost of N31.8 million without approval from the Attorney-General of the Federation, undocumented crude oil recovery from remediation sites and the adoption of a progressive salary structure for contract staff.
The audit report also flagged extra-budgetary expenditure of N931 million, duplication of services through contracts worth N182 million, and duplication of monitoring and evaluation functions valued at N507 million.
Other issues include an alleged irregular payment of N43 million for advertisements without evidence of performance and the continued stay in office of an officer after the expiration of the officer’s secondment.
The 2024 Audit Report further queried an unverified payment of N1.5 billion as compensation, non-retirement of N14 million in cash advances, irregular payment of N229.1 million and N260 million spent on a training programme without evidence of execution.
The committee also raised concerns over the alleged denial of access to documents and records relating to projects worth N27.5 billion.
Salam said HYPREP and the Ogoni Trust Fund would also be required to explain issues surrounding the $1 billion reportedly contributed towards the Ogoni cleanup following the withdrawal of Shell Petroleum Development Company from the process.
He said the committee was particularly interested in claims by Renaissance Energy Limited that it had contributed more than $900 million to the cleanup fund.
The committee said the investigation was aimed at establishing accountability and ensuring that funds meant for the remediation and development of Ogoniland were properly managed.
