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Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala
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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
Coordinating Minister 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 US$20 billion oil money had been stolen.
PREMIUM TIMES reports:
Former Central Bank
governor, Sanusi 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 spokesperson, 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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