‘Missing’ $20bn: Reps panel wants PwC investigated

firstclassnewsline.net

It was learnt that the committee said considering the controversy
generated by the firm's report on the missing money, the
International Federation of Accounting and the Institute of Chartered
Accountants of Nigeria should probe past audits carried out on
behalf of the Federal Government the PwC.
A former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor and now the Emir of Kano,
Muhammadu Sanusi had last year raised the alarm that the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation did not remit the said sum to the
federation account.
Initially, Sanusi had said in a letter he wrote to President
Goodluck Jonathan that $49bn was not remitted by the corporation.
However, as a committee appointed by government set out to reconcile
the accounts of the NNPC, Sanusi recanted and said the amount was
$12bn. In the weeks that followed, he changed the amount involved to
$20bn.
The Federal Government later engaged PwC to conduct a forensic audit
of the accounts of the corporation, but the report of the firm
generated more controversies.
The House Committee on Public Accounts, in its first official reaction
to the report, noted that the firm "deceived" Nigerians by not telling
the truth about its findings.
Its Chairman, Solomon Olamilekan, stated in Abuja that while the PwC
made Nigerians to believe all along that it conducted a forensic audit
on the missing fund , it had now admitted that the auditing was not
detailed.
Olamilekan observed that from the initial $1.4bn the firm recommended
that the NNPC should remit to the Federation Account, other figures
had emerged.
He said, "The PwC is now saying that there was no forensic audit; that
a lot of documents were not released to them.
"Several figures are now being bandied around. First, they said
$1.4bn, now we hear other figures like $4.3bn.
"Why did the PwC deceive us all the while?"
He added that the "cloudy nature" of the handling of the audit
exercise by the PwC raised doubts over similar investigations the firm
had carried out for the government and its agencies in the past.
Olamilekan, who is the Senator-elect for Lagos-West Senatorial
District, advised the incoming administration of Muhammad Buhari to
suspend further dealings with the firm until it cleared its name.
Olamilekan said, "The International Federation of Accounting; the
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, among others, should
investigate the PwC and punish them appropriately.
"The PwC should refund all the money they collected from government
for an audit they failed to do.
"The incoming Buhari-led federal government should suspend further
dealings with the PwC. For a highly reputable firm to come out with
such a report on a serious financial issue, is embarrassing.
Firstclassnewsline.net