Reps give HYPREP seven days to explain N400bn audit queries

File photo: House of Representatives

The House of Representatives has given the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project a seven-day ultimatum to appear before its Public Accounts Committee and answer questions over audit queries involving more than N400bn in the management of funds for the Ogoni cleanup.

The ultimatum followed HYPREP’s failure to honour four previous invitations by the committee to explain issues raised in the 2021 and 2024 audit reports of the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.

At a public hearing of the committee on Monday, attended by 27 members, Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Bamidele Salam, said the latest invitation would be the final opportunity for the project coordinator to appear before the lawmakers.

Salam warned that if HYPREP failed to appear by Monday, October 12, 2026, the House would invoke its constitutional powers to compel the appearance of the agency’s accounting officer.

“This is the final warning. We have invited HYPREP on four different occasions, and they have failed to appear before this committee,” Salam said.

He said the committee was determined to establish how public funds appropriated for the remediation of polluted Ogoniland were spent and obtain explanations on the numerous queries contained in the Auditor-General’s reports.

The committee also summoned the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ogoni Remediation Trust Fund to address issues relating to the management of the fund.

Among the issues contained in the audit reports is HYPREP’s failure to submit its audited accounts to the Office of the Auditor-General between 2017 and 2021.

The 2021 audit report also raised questions over the alleged irregular award of contracts and non-deduction of statutory taxes amounting to $2.1m, payment of N986m for consultancy services without evidence of execution and an irregular payment of N315m for training.

The report further queried the payment of N7.2bn for poorly executed contracts, N268m without prepayment audit and non-deduction of statutory taxes amounting to N32m.

Other queries included the engagement of external solicitors at a cost of N31.8m without approval from the Attorney-General of the Federation; the recovery of crude oil from remediation sites without proper documentation; adoption of a progressive salary scale for contract staff; and extra-budgetary expenditure of N931m.

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The Auditor-General also raised concerns over alleged duplication of services through contracts valued at N182m and duplication of monitoring and evaluation functions involving N507m.

The committee was further told of an alleged irregular payment of N43m for advertisement without evidence of performance and the continued stay in office of an officer after the expiration of his secondment.

The 2024 audit report raised additional questions, including an unverified payment of N1.5bn as compensation, non-retirement of N14m in cash advances and an irregular payment of N229.1m.

It also queried the payment of N260m for a training programme without evidence of execution.

Another major concern was the “alleged denial of access to N27.5bn worth of project documents and records required for audit verification.”

The committee is also expected to question HYPREP and the Ogoni Remediation Trust Fund over the management of the $1bn reportedly contributed towards the Ogoni cleanup following Shell Petroleum Development Company’s withdrawal from the project.

The lawmakers said they would particularly seek clarification on claims by Renaissance Energy Limited that it had contributed more than $900m to the fund.

The Ogoni cleanup followed the United Nations Environment Programme’s assessment of widespread oil pollution in Ogoniland and the Federal Government’s subsequent establishment of HYPREP to coordinate the environmental remediation and associated livelihood restoration programmes.

The project has received substantial public funding and other contributions, making transparency and accountability in the management of the cleanup funds a recurring issue.

Salam said the committee would not “allow the audit queries to remain unresolved,” stressing that the summoned officials must provide the necessary records and explanations.

He directed HYPREP and the Ogoni Remediation Trust Fund to appear before the committee and respond to the queries within the stipulated period.