The minister, who stated this in a statement issued by her Special Adviser on Communications, Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu, was reacting to what she described as a frivolous law suit instituted against her by a group of three accounting firms, SIAO Partners.
The firm, according to the statement, had filed a suit against the minister before a Lagos High Court, alleging that she appointed the global audit firm, PWC, to conduct the recently concluded forensic audit of the NNPC in violation of the provisions of the Local Content Act.
The statement read, “It has come to the attention of the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, that SIAO Partners, a group of three accounting firms, has filed a suit against her before a Lagos High Court.
“The minister is yet to be formally notified of the suit but from information gleaned from media reports, the group is alleging that she appointed the global audit firm, PriceWaterHouseCoopers to conduct the recently concluded forensic audit of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation against the provisions of the Local Content Act.
“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.
“Dr. Okonjo-Iweala did not appoint the PWC to carry out the audit. The SIAO Partners should immediately drop this totally baseless suit or she will see them in court.”
PwC was last year hired the Federal Government to carry out the audit of the NNPC following an allegation by the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, that $49bn was not remitted to the Federation Account by the corporation.
Sanusi, who is now the Emir of Kano, had written a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan that the money was not remitted to the Federation Account by the NNPC.
But following the controversy which the letter generated, a committee was set up to reconcile the account.
Sanusi later recanted and said the unremitted fund was $12bn. He later again changed the figure to $20bn.