Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has today denied appointing world renowned audit firm, PriceWaterHouse Coopers to audit the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) over the alleged missing $20 billion oil money.
This was revealed through a statement released by the Special Adviser to the Minister, Paul Nwabuikwu, Thursday.
The statement was in response to a law suit filed by a group of three accounting firms before a Lagos High Court, saying Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala violated the local content law by appointing PwC.
“The group is alleging that she appointed the global audit firm PWC to conduct the recently concluded forensic audit of the NNPC against the provisions of the Local Content Act,” he said.
Okonjo-Iweala had been one of the main role players in 2014 when the FG tried to deny the allegations of corruption by then Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Bank, Lamido Sanusi, that $20 billion oil money had been stolen.
She then tried to reconcile the accounts at a Senate hearing which failed, then she announced that an independent forensic audit would be conducted.
The Federal Government then announced the appointment of PriceWatersHouseCoopers to handle the delicate issue.
PwC report had demanded that NNPC refund $1.48billion to the federal government coffers but they failed to vouch for the content and overall quality of their work.
The Nigerian Auditor General, Samuel Ukura had claimed that Jonathan had unnatural interest in the result of the report.
Auditor General, Samuel Ukura
The issue of the report had been put on a fast track after President-elect Muhammadu Buhari threatened to look into the matter when he assumes office.
The President-Elect, who spoke in the local Hausa language, expressed surprise that instead of probing the allegations by the former CBN governor, the authorities chose to fire him.
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