The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee has given the coordinator of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) a seven-day deadline to face its panel.
This ultimatum comes in the wake of 2021 and 2024 Auditor-General reports that flag over N400 billion in suspected financial mismanagement. Committee Chairman Bamidele Salam stated that the warning was issued after HYPREP officials skipped four previous summonses. He warned that if they fail to show up by Monday, October 12, 2026, the House will use its legislative powers to compel the agency’s accounting officer to attend.
According to the audit findings, HYPREP neglected to submit audited accounts from 2017 through 2021. The agency also faces multiple financial queries, which include:
- Unlawful contracts and missing tax deductions totaling $2.1 million, alongside another N32 million in non-deductions.
- Disbursing N986 million for consultancies and N260 million to N260 million/N268 million for trainings with zero proof of completion, plus an unverified N1.5 billion compensation payout.
- Handing out N7.2 billion for sub-standard project execution and N27.5 billion worth of projects where access to records was blocked.
- Extra-budgetary spending of N931 million, illegal salary scales for contract staff, unretired cash advances of N14 million, and an officer overstaying their secondment term.
- Overlapping service contracts worth N182 million and monitoring/evaluation overlaps totaling N507 million.
- Unauthorized legal fees of N31.8 million, undocumented crude oil recoveries from remediation sites, and N43 million spent on ads without performance proof.
Finally, Salam noted that both HYPREP and the Ogoni Remediation Trust Fund must account for the $1 billion provided for the Ogoni land clean-up following Shell’s withdrawal, as well as separate claims from Renaissance Energy Ltd that it paid over $900 million into the fund.
