A report by the office of Nigeria’s Auditor-General has revealed that the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) approved a staggering N3.4 billion in payments without the required approval of the Group Managing Director (GMD).
The 808-page 2022 Auditor-General’s annual report published in August 2025 and recently submitted to the National Assembly as Nigeria’s Constitution provides revealed that the payments were made for various services without attaching relevant supporting documents, violating the Financial Regulations (FR) of 2009.
“The sum of N3,445,022, 107.40 (Three billion, four hundred and forty five million, twenty two thousand, one hundred and seven naira, forty kobo) was paid from the special funding request for various services without attaching the relevant supporting documents,” the report said.
The audit report noted that the CFO granted the “approval for the payments without evidence of approvals of the GMD”, adding that when the “amounts were above the CFO’s approval threshold, the audit was not availed with the opportunity to confirm the actual expenditures from these special funds as they were mostly outside the NNPC Towers.”
The auditor general said the anomalies could be attributed to weaknesses in the internal control system at the NNPC, now NNPC Ltd. It could also amount to possible diversion of public funds and loss of public funds, the report stated.
Umar Isa Ajiya, who served as the CFO of NNPC during the period covered by the Auditor-General’s report, has recently been accused of abuse of office and misappropriation of funds.
In June 2019, the late former President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Mr Ajiya as the CFO of the NNPC.
Mr Ajiya held the position when NNPC was still a corporation and throughout its transition into a limited liability company, NNPC Limited, under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) of 2021. He was later replaced by Adedapo Segun in a management shake-up in November last year.
On 23 June, PREMIUM TIMES reported how the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested Mr Ajiya.
PREMIUM TIMES, at the time, learnt from the commission’s officials briefed on the development, that he was arrested in connection with alleged $7.2 billion fraud associated with the rehabilitation of the Kaduna, Warri and Port Harcourt refineries.
The three refineries have underperformed and recorded zero production over the years despite annual allocation of turnaround maintenance to them.
According to the sources, Mr Ajiya was detained by the agency along with a former Managing Director of Warri Refinery, Jimoh Olasunkanmi.
Mr Ajiya, however, denied the reports of his arrest by the EFCC, stating that he voluntarily submitted himself to the EFCC for questioning and was not arrested or detained.
NNPC Defence
Responding to the audit query, the NNPC management stated that “all payments amounting to N3,445,022, 107.40 were inter-company transactions made to NNPC subsidiaries, including the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company (NPSC), and Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC).”
It explained that these payments were executed as part of operational funding processes to support the activities of the subsidiaries. It added that the CFO’s approval for the payments was made in line with the NNPC Board-Approved Delegation of Authority (DOA), which permits the CFO to authorise inter-company transactions of this nature.
“The approvals were consistent with the regulatory framework governing the financial operations of NNPC,” the NNPC said.
To facilitate audit confirmation, NNPC Ltd requested that the specific transactions requiring verification be identified by the audit team.
“Upon receipt of the details, the relevant supporting documents will be retrieved and provided for audit purposes.”
However, the Auditor-General’s evaluation deemed the response unsatisfactory, and the findings remain valid until recommendations are implemented.
“Audit notes the management’s response to the issue raised but not satisfactory. Therefore, the findings remain valid until the management implements the recommendations,” the report said.
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Recommendations
The Auditor-General’s report requested that the Group Chief Executive Officer provide explanations to the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly and recover and remit the N3.4 billion to the Treasury and forward evidence of remittance to the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly.
The report recommended that, otherwise, “sanctions relating to irregular payments and failure to account for public funds specified in paragraphs 3106 and 3115 of the Financial Regulations (2009) respectively, should apply.”
