Nigeria’s Auditor General Accuses GEJ Of Having “Great Interest” In Audit Report On NNPC

From Premium Times;

The Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF), Samuel Ukura, on Tuesday blamed the inability of his office to publish the report of the forensic audit on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) over the missing $20 billion oil fund on presidential interest.

He said the the Goodluck Jonathan presidency had far more special interest in the matter than his own office and the auditors.

Several months after PriceWaterhouseCoopers Limited completed investigations into the allegation of unremitted oil revenues, the report was not released to the public despite demands by Nigerians.

On Sunday, April 27, President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, had threatened that his administration would probe the allegations on assumption of office if the report was not made public.

Apparently reacting to Mr. Buhari’s threat, President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday ordered immediate release of the report to Nigerians.

Presidential spokesperson, Reuben Abati, said the decision to release of the full report was to demonstrate that the present administration had nothing to hide over the matter.

But in a response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by Premium Times, the AuGF blamed the long delay by his office in releasing the full audit report on the Presidency.

In response to this newspaper’s request for the document, days before the presidency released it,  Mr. Ukura said he was not in a position to release the report because the presidency has “great interest” in the information contained therein.

“After a careful review of the information, it is my considered opinion that the Presidency has a great interest in the information,” the auditor general, said through his representative, Uche Okafor-Agbi.

He therefore advised Premium Times to redirect its request for the report to the presidency which had custody of the document.

“You may wish to channel your application accordingly,” Mr. Ukura said.

Mr. Ukura’s letter to Premium Times was apparently dispatched hours before the presidency released the audit report but it arrived this newspaper’s office hours after the document had been made public.