President Muhammadu Buhari has commissioned a total probe on the administration of immediate past president, Goodluck Jonathan as the National Economic Council (NEC), Ad-hoc Committee on the Management of Excess Crude Account Proceeds and Accruals in the Federation Account, headed by the Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, are set to hire two international forensic audit firms to probe revenue that accrued into the Federation Account and how it was spent under the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
Speaking to journalists at the end of the meeting of the committee in Abuja, yesterday, Oshiomhole said the auditors would cover the period January 1, 2010 to June 1, 2015. Members of the four-man committee include Gov. Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai (Kaduna State), Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe state), and Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom).
According to the committee: “We held our first primary session today (yesterday) 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 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.”
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.”Oshiomhole said: “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.”
“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.”
Oshiomhole said 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 forensic audit which the assignment entails.
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