Buhari begins probe of Jonathan’s govt

A total probe of the administration run by immediate former president, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is underway as the National Economic Council, NEC, Ad-hoc Committee on the Management of Excess Crude Account Proceeds and Accruals into the Federation Account, headed by the Governor of Edo State, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, is to hire two international forensic audit firms to probe revenue that accrued into the Federation Account and how it was spent under former Dr Goodluck Jonathan as President.

Mr. Oshiomhole told journalists at the end of the first meeting of the committee in Abuja, yesterday that the auditors would cover the period January 1, 2010 to June 1, 2015. It put paid to calls by the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party, PDP, that Buhari should extend his probe to the administrations of Jonathan's predecessors, Alh. Umaru Yar' Adua.and Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. 

Already, some revenue generating agencies have been invited to brief the committee which will take detailed briefings from all Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs of the Federal Government that deal directly with revenue.

The focus will be on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, the Nigeria Customs Service, the Central bank of Nigeria, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, among others.

Other members of the committee included Gov. Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai of Kaduna State, Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe, and Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom.

He said that the committee did not want its actions to be bogged down by political interpretations and that the members were not professionals. Even if they were professionals, he said that their duties as governors would not allow them the time to do a thorough work.

His words, "We held our first primary session today here with some of the revenue generating agencies that are supposed to remit funds to the federation account. We had a successful session with Customs, NPA, NEITI, SEC, FIRS, and quite a number of others and next week we will also hear from CBN, Ministry of Finance, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.

For the remaining ones, we agree we are going to meet on Thursday next week, NNPC, NPDC, DPR, NIMASA and other remaining agencies.

We have started the work, with the idea to hear them out, what they have been doing, with particular emphasis on revenue accruing from these organizations and whether or not these have been remitted to the Federation Account for judicious distribution.

His words: "We realised that this is a task and given our mandate, even if we were professional accountants because we are sitting governors, we would not have the time to do a forensic audit which this assignment entails.

"Therefore, we have agreed in line with our mandate to appoint two reputable international audit firms to carry out a thorough forensic audit, not only of NNPC, which is more of excess crude, but other monies that accrued to the Federation Accounts. We have other revenues like bonuses, royalties, taxes, VAT that flow into the Federation Account.

"We are taking a holistic review of the entire process, looking at all the agencies that make contribution of funds to the federation account.

We are convinced that by appointing audit firms, we will allow professionals to carry out this exercise, so that it will be free of any political colouration and also we will ensure the outcome of the investigation will.

"We have learned, we have listened and asked questions. I think we all have a clear picture of what is happening in those organizations before now. Some have information to supply and we have drawn attention to those areas, they are willing to oblige. We believe in the end, we will be able to not just establish what had happened over the period but much more important, going forward with the changes the President has promised the country.

"It is not going to be business as usual. He started on a clean slate and everybody knows the new rules of the game and in parti