In a move that has surprised many, President Goodluck Jonathan has queried the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, over various infractions detected in the apex bank’s 2012 audited account. The query, which covered 22 issues bordering on massive fraud at the bank, was sent to the governor on May 6 and the response, though expected back on May 8, was submitted to the President on May 21. The query of the bank’s account, which its auditors, Ernst and Young, passed without officially signing, with only a comment that it complies with the CBN Act, covers issues such as investment of a huge amount of money in an Islamic bank in Malaysia without any guarantee of its generating returns. Others are write-off of about N3.5 billion CBN staff housing loan and the donation of about one billion naira to a political party to open up offices across the country. This donation, which was given under the special access item in the account, is believed to be geared towards furthering Sanusi’s alleged political ambition in the 2015 general elections. The query touched other issues such as refusal of the apex bank to consolidate in its account, the trillion debt owed by the Asset Management Company, AMCON, and the non-disclosure of the total liabilities through the bond floated by the company. The governor was also asked to explain the discrepancies noted in the 2012 account regarding the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company, a subsidiary of the apex bank. Other issues include the controversial donations made to some higher institutions in the country. Investigations have shown that some of the donations were inflated in the bank’s books. For example, while the Bayero University Kano, BUK, was said to have collected N4billion, the school authorities claimed it got only N1billion. The apex bank’s account became suspicious when the governor refused to submit it to the Financial Reporting Council, FRC, the body with the mandate to ascertain the compliance of companies with accounting standards, and the International Financial Reporting Standards, IFRS. Rather than submitting it to the body, the governor requested for seven years’ grace for the CBN to comply with FRC stipulations. The audit report of the account, which was submitted directly to the President, was later forwarded to the economic adviser to the President for his appraisal. The official okayed the account and noted that it complied with the CBN Act. However, unhappy with the economic adviser’s comment, Jonathan returned the report to him and drew his attention to the refusal of the auditor to sign the account. An official of Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria, ICAN, told our reporter that an audit report is worthless when it does not carry the signature of the auditor. icirnigeria/ireports.php?id=43
Posted on: Tue, 06 Aug 2013 11:53:00 +0000
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