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Chairman of the National Economic Council (NEC) Ad-hoc Committee on the Management of Excess Crude Account Proceeds and Accruals into the Federation Account, Governor Adams Oshiomhole, has said that two international forensic audit firms will be hired to probe the financial dealings of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
He said this on Thursday in Abuja while addressing journalists at the end of the first meeting of the committee. He said that the auditors would cover the period January 1, 2010 to June 1, 2015.
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.
Speaking further, he said: “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”
He added: “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.
Other members of the committee included Governors Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai of Kaduna State, Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe, and Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom.