Sack of auditors not enough, says Falana

FOR activist-lawyer Femi Falana, stopping two auditors – Messrs Akintola Williams & Company and Adekaonla & Company – over the alleged sharp of practices in the oil sector is scratching the issue on the surface.

According to Falana, the firms should be made to refund all monies they collected as professional fees without uncovering the massive fraud perpetrated by oil sector players.

The House of Representatives ad-Hoc Committee, which probed the controversial oil subsidy, indicted the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and oil marketers of mismanagement.

Reacting to the suspension of the auditing firms, Falana urged the Federal Government to sanction them, even as he described the government action as a welcome development.

The statement reads: “The Federal Government acted in the national interest by terminating the services of the two auditors -Akintola Williams & Company and Adekanola & Company – which engaged in the massive cover-up of the grand fuel subsidy scam. 

“The action is commendable as it is a practical demonstration of the determination of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration to bring to book all the economic saboteurs involved in the looting of the fuel subsidy fund. 

“However, the mere termination of the auditors’ services is not commensurate with the gravity of the economic crime committed by them.

“In the first place, the auditors should be made to refund the billions of naira collected as professional fees for colluding with the fuel importers to swindle the nation. 

“Secondly, the indicted auditors should be reported to the EFCC for investigation and prosecution for conspiracy to defraud, fraud and obtaining money by false pretence. 

“Thirdly, the report of the House Committee on the fuel subsidy scam should be sent to the relevant professional body for appropriate disciplinary action.

“However, the appointment of the Imokhuede-led panel to verify the 2011 subsidy claims is diversionary, wasteful and unwarranted. 

“Having regard to the concurrent probes of the fuel importation fraud by the House of Representatives, Senate and the EFCC, there is no justification for setting up another body to investigate the limited subsidy claims of 2011. 

“The resort to permanent investigation of the fuel subsidy fraud is a clever design by the Federal Government to shield certain sacred cows. The official diversion should stop without any further delay.”

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Sack of auditors not enough, says Falana