The Presidential Committee set up to probe the Excess Crude Account (ECA) has engaged two financial auditing firms to audit the accounts of all Federal Government revenue generating agencies.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and KPMG, both on the world’s top list of professional auditing firms, are to audit the accounts of the revenue generating agencies between the period under review.
The National Economic Council (NEC) had at its maiden meeting, set up a four man committee, consisting of the governors of Edo, Akwa Ibom, Gombe and Kaduna, to comb the books of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as regards remittances and the operations of the Excess Crude Account, as well the Federation Account, between 2012 and May 2015. At the committee’s first meeting in Abuja last week, Lagos state governor , Akinwunmi Ambode was co-opted into the committee.
However at the meeting, Thursday, at the Banquet Hall of the State House Abuja, the committee extended the probe to other revenue generating agencies, inviting them to appear and answer questions on their expenditures.
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Security and Exchange Commission, Customs Service, the Ministry of Finance, and office of the Accountant General of the Federation, amongst others, took turns to appear before the probe panel render account.
Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomole, who briefed journalists after the meeting, said it is no longer business as usual, adding that the first probe was only restricted to NNPC but will now also cover all the subsidiaries under it. The first probe by PWC, he said, was unfinished business.
This probe, he said “will now cover value for expense” as the affected agencies will be made to account for things expended on at their correct value.
Elizabeth Archibong
