BIG TROUBLE!!! Buhari to Sanction PwC Over NNPC Missing $20billion - Report – APC Chieftain Insists
The Senator-Elect for Lagos West Senatorial District and Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts, Solomon Adeola has called on the incoming Federal Government and relevant financial and auditing regulatory bodies to appropriately sanction the auditing firm, PriceWater House Coopers (PWC) for misleading and deceiving Nigerians on the issue of the missing $20billion NNPC fund as alleged by the former CBN governor and present Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.
Adeola, who disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, said his Committee
that addressed the Press on the need to make the report public as there
appears many shortcomings in the procedure for engaging PWC and its
subsequent work has been vindicated on its alarm that an unprofessional
work might have been done to deceive Nigerians on the weighty allegation
of missing billions of dollars.
“From the disclosures by PWC on its work, there is no audit report on
the missing money much less a ‘forensic’ audit report. From what was
done by PWC, only a review and compilation of some figures was done
resulting in different figures from $1.4billion to $4.3billion being
bandied for refund by NNPC to the coffers of the Federation Accounts” he
stated.
He added that PWC not only misled and possibly defrauded Nigerians by
purporting to have undertaken a forensic audit report and collecting
fees for same but may have abetted a criminal cover up of fraud in its
role in the investigation.
Adeola therefore called on the incoming Federal Government to
investigate the PwC for it role in the shady drama that has now unfolded
and report them to such bodies as International Federation of Accounts
(IFAC) and ICAN to face disciplinary actions adding that the accounting
firm should be suspended and prevented from further participation in
similar exercise undertaken by the Federal Government.
“For such a highly rated auditing firm to release such a report is
dangerous and unethical. Indeed all other reports by PwC for the Federal
Government should be investigated as they were also involved in the
Fuel Subsidy Investigation and they should be made to refund money for
work not done or done appropriately,” Adeola stated.
He said Buhari’s stance to revisit the issue of missing NNPC fund is a
step in the right direction adding that the deceptive cover up role of
PWC in this investigation must not be overlooked as it strikes at the
heart of our constitutional provisions and the development of Nigeria.
“We are talking about $20billion and not millions. This is almost the budget of Nigeria for about two years,” he added.