The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) on Thursday commended President Goodluck Jonathan for the approval of the forensic audit of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Accounts (NNPC) over the missing $20 billion.
The Presidency announced the approval for a forensic audit of the agency in a statement issued by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati adding that it had authorised the engagement of reputable international firms to carry out the forensic audit of the accounts of the corporation.
It did not, however, give details of the firms contracted for the job.
Speaking on behalf of the coalition, its Executive Chairman, Mr. Debo Adeniran described the audit approval as laudable though belated.
He said: “The Federal Government must be commended for approving the forensic audit of the NNPC books. It is a known fact that NNPC has been a drain pipe to the coffers of this country.
“This audit will not only unearth the whereabouts of the missing $20bn, but it will also make transparent, the accounts of the NNPC and other government agencies. It is a good thing that independent bodies are going to find out what happened to the missing money and even digging into the books of the NNPC and her sister agencies”.
He said Nigerians are however sceptical about the fate of the audit report because the account of NNPC has been audited in the past and all of these reports indicted NNPC of inefficiency and monumental corruption, yet, no meaningful action was taken by the government.
“The KPMG report on NNPC carried out in 2010, the 2012 Nuhu Ribadu Report on NNPC, the Berne Declaration Report all indicted the NNPC of massive corruption and sharp practices and nothing has been done to those indicted in the probes”, he recalled.
Stressing further, the anti-corruption crusader averred that Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke and others fingered in the previous probes should be asked to step aside, if the forensic audit would be successful and meaningful.
“For any successful audit to be carried out, the Petroleum Minister and others that are suspects should step aside. Otherwise, the audit will just be efforts in futility as those auditors may be compromised at the end of the day”, Adeniran stated.
He urged the Federal Government to be sincere and make sure due diligence is made an important part of the audit, adding that the report of the audit should be handed over to the anti-graft agencies for apposite prosecution of anyone found to have abused his office.
