Former Group General Manager of the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), Alhaji Bala Wunti, has told the Senate that there is no evidence in the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.)’s 2023 audited financial statements to support claims that ₦210 trillion is missing from the company’s accounts, while the Chairman of the Senate Committee reviewing the accounts, Senator Ibrahim Dankwambo, affirmed that the committee had not established that any money was missing.
Appearing before the Senate Committee reviewing NNPC Ltd.’s 2023 audited financial statements, Wunti said he had undertaken a page-by-page examination of the accounts at the committee’s request and found no reference to any missing ₦210 trillion.
According to him, the controversial figure resulted from a misinterpretation of accounting entries rather than evidence of missing funds.
He explained that the ₦210 trillion figure was derived by wrongly adding together two separate balance sheet items—about ₦107 trillion recorded as sundry receivables, representing funds owed to the company, and approximately ₦103 trillion recorded as accrued expenses, representing liabilities owed by the company.
“Receivables are money other people owe you, while accrued expenses are money you owe other people. Accounting standards require that these items be reported separately. They cannot simply be added together and described as missing money,” Wunti told lawmakers.
Declaring under oath, the former NAPIMS boss maintained that there was no basis for the allegation that ₦210 trillion had disappeared from the NNPC’s books, insisting that the audited financial statements contained no evidence of missing funds.
Wunti,
