Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has
distanced herself from the audit firm, PriceWatersHouseCoopers, saying she
should not be held responsible for its hiring to probe Nigeria’s alleged
missing oil money, days after a widely-discredited report by PwC was released.
As finance minister and coordinator of the economy, Mrs.
Okonjo-Iweala played a leading role in 2014 when PwC as hired, as the
government tried to counter an allegation that $20 billion oil money had been
stolen. Former Central Bank governor, Lamido Sanusi, who made the
claim, accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC of diverting
the money.
After efforts by the government and the Senate to reconcile
the sum yielded no tangible results, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala recommended an
independent forensic audit. She later announced the hiring of
PriceWaterHouseCoopers. The report containing the outcome of PwC’s investigation,
was released Monday several months after the firm completed its assignment.
PriceWaterHouseCoopers however said the work should not be
relied upon, as it failed to meet international standards. In an unusual statement Thursday, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala sought
to steer clear of the audit firm, although she said her response followed a
lawsuit blaming her for the hiring.
A statement released by Paul Nwabuikwu, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala’s
spoksperson, said the minister was responding to a lawsuit filed by a group of
three accounting firms before a Lagos High Court, accusing Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala
of violating federal local content law by appointing PwC.
The statement was issued before the minister received a
formal notification of a suit, a rather unusual and prompt response seen as an
attempt by Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala to comment on the PwC case.
“The CME is astonished by the news of the said court action
which is spurious in the extreme,” spokesperson Mr. Nwabuikwu said. “It is
shocking that professionals of the calibre of the SIAO Partners can embark on
this kind of legal action without taking the trouble to do the minimum amount
of homework to confirm basic facts.”
The statement said “Okonjo-Iweala did not appoint the PWC to
carry out the audit”.
The minister called on those behind the suit to immediately
drop it or face her in court.
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