THE Nigerian government on Friday said it has terminated the services of Akintola Williams & Co., and Adekanola & Co., the audit and accounting firms previously empowered to carry out document certification and claims of companies involved in the oil marketing business in the country.
Citing its concerned with the management of the subsidy regime, the government said that the Finance Ministry has for the last two months been reviewing aspects of the implementation of the subsidy regime related to its functions, which has produced a lot of useful details on what was wrong with the system and what needs to be done to ensure improvement going forward.
According to a press release made available to the press on Friday, the review process kicked off in February when the ministry and relevant government agencies held a meeting with bankers and marketers at the instance of President Goodluck Jonathan. A session with the accounting and auditing firms was later held to re-evaluate their work, after which a conclusion was reached to terminate their services.
The government also said that the finance ministry has established a committee made up of credible and experienced persons from the private and public sector with strong technical component under the chairmanship of Mr. Aigboje Imoukuede to examine the claims of payment arrears for 2011 currently being made by marketers. This is to ensure that only genuine claims are honored.
A new and more effective system is also being finanlized to replace the current arrangement and, alongside a second committee to propose a good way to forward.
In a related development, the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) has put on hold further depletion of the Excess Crude Account (ECA).