25th February, 2014
Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy has called for urgent appointment of auditors to carry out independent forensic audit of conflicting claims of unaccounted funds made by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamdio Sanusi.
The Minister also agreed that about N10.8 billion was still missing in NNPC remittances to federation account from reconciliation of the Corporation and the Ministry of Finance.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Okonjo- Iweala said: “My position on this has been clear from the start. The Ministry of Finance’s reconciliation showed a shortfall of $10.8b in NNPC remittances to the Federation account.
“After this, the conflicting claims continued with new figures such as $20b being mentioned. So, since 13th February I have called for an independent forensic audit.
“President Goodluck Jonathan indeed announced last night that there will be an investigation into whether there are any funds missing from NNPC.
“He also indicated that the correct process needs to be followed in this investigation and I understand that the entity that has the proper authority to initiate such an investigation is the Auditor-General of the federation.
“I therefore want to see the truth from an investigation under the auspices of the Auditor- General, which in my view should be undertaken as a matter of extreme urgency by independent external auditors.”
Some analysts said the Finance minister may have issued the statement out of fear that President Jonathan may not go ahead with the investigation given the cavalier manner he treated the issue of the unremitted funds in his media chat yesterday.
Mallam Lamido Sanusi, who was suspended as the Governor of Central Bank last Thursday had raised alarms over failure of NNPC to remit funds realised from the sale of crude oil to the national treasury in the past three months.
Some analysts have linked the suspension of the CBN Governor to his crusade over the unremitted funds.
It was gathered that the Iweala, a former World Bank staff is apprehensive on the possible rub off of the missing funds on her reputation.