Where is the Audit Report on Missing $20b? - Reps to Jonathan

The House of Reps has asked the federal government to make available to it the full forensic audit report on the alleged missing $20billion from Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

The House of Reps’ action is a direct consequence of the exclusive demand made by LEADERSHIP, which had invoked the Freedom of Information Act, to compel the auditor-general of the federation (AuGF) to provide the media house with the full report of the forensic audit of the NNPC.

Rather than comply with this lawful demand, the AuGF Office directed LEADERSHIP to the presidency.

Consequently, the resolution of the House reads: “For the purposes of accountability and in compliance with the Freedom of Information Act, the federal government should, as a matter of urgency and in the interest of the general public, make the full report available to the Public Account Committee for the benefit of the House.”

House minority leader, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, who moved the motion, expressed concern at the allegations by the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2013 that such a huge amount of money was missing from the NNPC, even as he lamented federal government’s inaction on the said report.

The motion noted that on April 2014, the Presidency had through the minister of finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, announced the engagement of a reputable international auditing firm, Price Waterhouse Coopers, to carry out a detained forensic audit on the accounts of NNPC.

Gbajabiamila lamented that since February 2, 2015, when the audit report was formally presented to President Goodluck Jonathan by the auditing firm, up until now neither the general public nor the National Assembly had been briefed in details on the contents of the report.