President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday received the report of the forensic audit of the accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), saying the kind of figures of missing monies being bandied in the media by some people are ridiculous.
He promised that he will deal with the report decisively because the issue of missing funds in the NNPC is an issue Ngerians are interested in.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC), an international firm contracted by the federal government on March 12, 2014, to carry out forensic audit of the NNPC’s account submitted the report to the president in the new banquet hall at the presidential villa Monday evening.
President Jonathan’s alarm over what he described as figures he cannot “imagine the country will make” being bandied in the newspapers is coming barely 24 hours after former Central Bank Governor, Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo had alleged that over N30 trillion had been stolen under the watch of the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
But, receiving the report of the forensic audit of the NNPC accounts, President Jonathan who noted that there had been so much controversy over the NNPC “and leakages or no leakages” recalled that, while the Senate had also probed the NNPC account, it was good that professionals have also looked into it.
He assured that the report is a precious document that the Accountant-General would keep because it would be needful to him when writing his memo by the time he leaves office.
“And I will have my own copy, because even if you leave office, maybe when I write my memoir I will use some part of it. But the kind of figures people bandy in the papers look so ridiculous”, he said.
Noting that he will deal with the report decisively, the president thanked the firm for its good work, even as he expressed belief that the report would help government move things forward “and set things right and I promise we will handle it decisively”.
He said, “What appears in the papers and the speculations is also very high. The figures that I cannot even imagine the country will make is being bandied in the newspapers. So, I am quite pleased that you have taken the forensic audit.”
“Though it is voluminous, I will give it to the professionals. In government work, there are people that have the statutory responsibilities to handle such assignments, such as the Auditor General of the Federation,” the president said.
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