A total probe of the administration run by immediate former president,
Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is underway as the National Economic Council,
NEC, Ad-hoc Committee on the Management of Excess Crude Account
Proceeds and Accruals into the Federation Account, headed by the
Governor of Edo State, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, is to hire two
international forensic audit firms to probe revenue that accrued into
the Federation Account and how it was spent under former Dr Goodluck
Jonathan as President.
Mr. Oshiomhole told journalists at the end of the first meeting of the
committee in Abuja, yesterday that the auditors would cover the period
January 1, 2010 to June 1, 2015. It put paid to calls by the opposition
Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, that Buhari should extend his probe to
the administrations of Jonathan’s predecessors, Alh. Umaru Yar’ Adua.and
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.
Already, some revenue generating agencies have been invited to brief the
committee which will take detailed briefings from all Ministries,
Departments and Agencies, MDAs of the Federal Government that deal
directly with revenue.
The focus will be on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC,
the Nigeria Customs Service, the Central bank of Nigeria, the Nigeria
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, among others.
Other members of the committee included Gov. Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai of
Kaduna State, Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe, and Udom Emmanuel of Akwa
Ibom.
He said that the committee did not want its actions to be bogged down by
political interpretations and that the members were not professionals.
Even if they were professionals, he said that their duties as governors
would not allow them the time to do a thorough work.
His words, “We held our first primary session today here with some of
the revenue generating agencies that are supposed to remit funds to the
federation account. We had a successful session with Customs, NPA,
NEITI, SEC, FIRS, and quite a number of others and next week we will
also hear from CBN, Ministry of Finance, Office of the
Accountant-General of the Federation.
For the remaining ones, we agree we are going to meet on Thursday next
week, NNPC, NPDC, DPR, NIMASA and other remaining agencies.
We have started the work, with the idea to hear them out, what they have
been doing, with particular emphasis on revenue accruing from these
organizations and whether or not these have been remitted to the
Federation Account for judicious distribution.
His words: “We realised that this is a task and given our mandate, even
if we were professional accountants because we are sitting governors, we
would not have the time to do a forensic audit which this assignment
entails.
“Therefore, we have agreed in line with our mandate to appoint two
reputable international audit firms to carry out a thorough forensic
audit, not only of NNPC, which is more of excess crude, but other monies
that accrued to the Federation Accounts. We have other revenues like
bonuses, royalties, taxes, VAT that flow into the Federation Account.
“We are taking a holistic review of the entire process, looking at all
the agencies that make contribution of funds to the federation account.
We are convinced that by appointing audit firms, we will allow
professionals to carry out this exercise, so that it will be free of any
political colouration and also we will ensure the outcome of the
investigation will.
“We have learned, we have listened and asked questions. I think we all
have a clear picture of what is happening in those organizations before
now. Some have information to supply and we have drawn attention to
those areas, they are willing to oblige. We believe in the end, we will
be able to not just establish what had happened over the period but much
more important, going forward with the changes the President has
promised the country.
“It is not going to be business as usual. He started on a clean slate
and everybody knows the new rules of the game and in particular as the
laws apply to the various institutions are implemented in full. So I
think we started very well. We are very confident that we are going to
come out with something that is going to be of immense benefits to the
Nigerian people”.
On the rationale for embarking on another audit report with regards to
the alleged missing funds, he said “Some reports were produced by PWC
but in that report the PWC expressed their frustration and pointed to
the fact that they were not able to access all the information they
needed and that what they were able to produce was to the extent of
information that was made available to them.”
He added: “Audit can only be credible as much as information that was
made available to auditors. The good news now is that with President
Buhari, all the books will be open, no agency has any protection. Any
agency that refuses to open the books then is ready to go on
confrontation with the authority.
“The forensic audit will act on the whole truth and nothing but the
truth so that all stakeholders will have basis to formulate good
policies and that Nigeria will never find itself in this circle where
huge sums of money are allegedly diverted and unaccounted for. Audit
has become a way of life for all public institutions.”
On the duration of the audit exercise, Oshiomhole explained that the
committee had looked at it professionally. “We are focusing on a five
year circle. What we have agreed is that we are going to carry out an
audit for five years from 1st January 2010 to 30th June 2015.
“If the audit report reveals that we need to go backward, then we can do
that. But for the first instance, this is the period that we consider
good.
“We can’t impose a time frame on them but will engage them and by
Thursday we will be able to make it public. We need to listen to them
and agreed with them on how much time will be okay for them. We are all
in a hurry to ensure that the right thing is done. The emphasis is not
on time but doing thorough job.
“By next week we will meet with the big ones and we will then be able to
tell you the audit firms that we have appointed. They are firms I am
sure Nigerians will have confidence in.
“At the end of the audit we will hear them out and reconcile them with
what the laws says and arrive at a position. Given the volume of work
and complicated nature of issues, we agreed we need professionals to
carry out the audit. It is only the professionals that can handle it. It
is not good to compromise”.
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