The National Economic Council’s ad hoc
committee on the management of the Excess Crude Account proceeds and
accruals
into the Federation Account on Thursday agreed to engage two
international accounting firms to carry out a forensic audit of the
accounts and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
The committee is made up of the
governors of Edo State, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole; Gombe, Ibrahim Dankwaabo;
Akwa Ibom, Emmanuel Udom; Lagos, Akinwunmi Ambode; and Kaduna, Nasir
el-Rufai.
The committee at its inaugural meeting
on Thursday met with representatives of revenue generating agencies such
as the Nigeria Customs Service, Securities and Exchange Commission and
the Central Bank of Nigeria, as well as the Revenue Mobilisation
Allocation and Fiscal Commission.
Other
agencies whose representatives appeared before the committee were the
Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, Federal Ministry of
Finance, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the
Federal Inland Revenue Service.
Addressing journalists shortly after the
meeting, which lasted for over seven hours, Oshiomhole, who is also the
Chairman of the committee, said it decided to engage the services of
the two accounting firms in order to thoroughly investigate how proceeds
into the account were managed.
He said the committee would be meeting
with the other revenue generating agencies in the petroleum industry
next Thursday to get their inputs on how much was earned and remitted
into the Federation Account.
The agencies are the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation, Department of Petroleum Resources and the
Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, among others
Oshiomhole said it was after the meeting that the names of the two accounting firms would be announced.
The governor stated that the forensic
audit would cover a five-year period from January 2010 till June 2015,
adding that the period might be extended to cover other previous years
should such a need arise.
He said, “Given our mandate, even if we
are accountants, because we are city governors, we won’t have all 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 the NNPC, which is much
talked about, but actually all the money that accrued to the Federation
Account.
“We know now that although people talk
of the Excess Crude Account, we have other revenues like bonuses,
royalties and taxes, part of which flow into the Federation Account,
depending on the budget estimate.
“So, we are taking a holistic review of
the entire process and looking at all the agencies that are supposed to
make contributions to fund the Federation Account.
“So, we are convinced that by appointing
audit firms, we will allow professionals to carry out this exercise so
that it will be free from any political colouration and also will ensure
that the outcome of the investigation will command interest and
confidence of all the stakeholders and the Nigerian public.”
The Edo State governor said the outcome
of the last forensic audit carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers on the
NNPC was not detailed enough as the accounting firm even admitted that
it did not get adequate information to perform its audit exercise.
Oshiomhole said since President
Muhammadu Buhari had given the directive that it would no longer be
business as usual, all the books would be opened to enable the auditors
perform their assignment effectively.
He described the meeting with the agencies as fruitful.
He said, “The President has promised the
country that it is not going to be business as usual and everybody
knows the new rules of the game.
“We’ve started very well and we’ve
worked together as brothers. Some of you will be wondering that these
books have been audited before, particularly with regards to the NNPC’s
alleged missing funds and some report was produced by PwC.
“But if you read that report, you will
find out that the PwC expressed their frustration and point to the fact
that they were not able to have access to all the information they
needed.
“So, whatever report that they were able to produce was to the extent that the information was made available.
“But the good news now is that with
President Buhari, all the books will be opened and we are hopeful now
that the forensic audit that we will have will show the truth, the whole
truth and nothing but the truth.”
Source: Punch Newspaper.
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