FG engages KPMG, PWC to probe revenue

PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and KPMG have been engaged to audit the accounts of all federal revenue-generating agencies between 2012 and 2015.

The presidential committee looking into the excess crude account (ECA) said on Thursday there was a need to go beyond just probing the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

The National Economic Council (NEC) had set up a committee, made up of the governors of Edo, Akwa Ibom, Gombe, Lagos and Kaduna states to screen the books of NNPC on its remittances to the federation account.

At Thursday’s meeting ‎in Abuja, the committee extended the probe to other revenue generating agencies.

They have been invited to answer questions on their expenditures.

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),  Nigeria Customs Service, the ministry of finance and the office of the accountant-general of the federation have all appeared before the panel.

Adams Oshiomhole (pictured), governor of Edo state, told the media that it would no longer be “business as usual”.

“The probe will now cover value for expense as the affected agencies will be made to account for things expended on at their correct value,” he said.

“This is about making Nigeria work for the benefit of other Nigerians and we have to bear in mind that governments are not run on the basis of collection of crude oil but government regardless of colour or political affiliation is run on race and so if you have tax generating agencies that are not remitting taxes government cannot run like that.

“So in the long run Nigeria has to live on taxes.”