Okonjo-Iweala: I didn’t hire PwC to audit NNPC

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, has denied appointing Price WaterHouse Coopers (PwC) to audit the account of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Okonjo-Iweala said this in response to a group of three accounting firms, which accused her of violating federal local content law by appointing PwC for the task.

The firms filed a lawsuit on the matter before a Lagos high court.

Maintaining innocence, the minister advised them to drop the suit if they do not want her to also institute a legal action against them.

“The group is alleging that she appointed the global audit firm PwC to conduct the recently concluded forensic audit of the NNPC against the provisions of the local content act,” read a statement issued by Paul Nwabuikwu, her spokesperson.

“The CME is astonished by the news of the said court action which is spurious in the extreme.

“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.”

Following an allegation by Sanusi Lamido, the then governor of the central bank, that the corporation failed to remit $20 billion to the federation account, PricewaterhouseCoopers was contracted to carry out a forensic probe.

The report was submitted to Jonathan in February, but only excerpts were released to the public.

However, the outgoing president ordered the release of the full report of the probe after Muhammadu Buhari, the president-elect, expressed dissatisfaction with the manner which the issue was handled.