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.
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.
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
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