The international firm of auditors – PricewaterhouseCoopers – which conducted a forensic audit of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, is to be invited by the House of Representatives to shed more light on its report submitted to President Goodluck Jonathan last Monday.
The chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts, Hon. Solomon Adeola, who announced this, said the firm has some explanations to make on its report which recommended that the NNPC refunds ‘only $1.48billion’ to the nation’s coffers as against the $20billion alleged to be missing from the account of the corporation.
Speaking at a town hall meeting at the weekend in Ikeja as part of his campaign for election as senator representing Lagos West, Mr. Adeola said the Auditor General of the Federation, Mr. Ukura Samuel, who commented on the report, has no locus standi to do so as he was not the one that appointed the consultants in the first place to carry out the audit and would not have been privy to the terms of reference and rules of engagement given to the auditing firm.
“The Auditor General did not appoint the auditing firm that submitted the report. What he gave the public in his press conference is a summarised version of the report and not the full report. We in the House Committee will be requesting for the full report. The firm was appointed by the Ministry of Finance and not the Auditor General”, he stated adding that as far as the House is concerned, the report raised more questions than answers to the missing Nigerian money.
The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee said the House needs to know the details of how out of $20billion, NNPC was only indicted for $1.48billion adding that Nigerians would want to know the details of what happened to the balance of $18.52billion in no uncertain terms.
“One is not surprised that the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Deiziani Alison-Madueke has quickly ordered payment of the acknowledged missing $1.48billion as this looks an easy way to bury the issue but Nigerians demand full accountability on this vexed issue”, he said.
Support InfoStride News' Credible Journalism: Only credible journalism can guarantee a fair, accountable and transparent society, including democracy and government. It involves a lot of efforts and money. We need your support. Click here to Donate