The controversial PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) report on NNPC has since been ordered released by President Jonathan. He had nothing to hide, he said. That may be true, but neither his confident statement nor the PWC’s report itself has attenuated the unfavourable impression most Nigerians have of the maze the Nigerian petroleum sector is entangled in. The report is full of pointers to the many warrens that crisscross the NNPC. So, rather than quieten down the anxiety of sceptical Nigerians, many of whom need little prompting to disbelieve NNPC and its stories of financial utopia, the report has raised more questions and fears than answers.
But what is most aggravating about the PWC report is the semantics being employed by everyone with something, including reputation, to lose on the NNPC matter. As if it never expected the report to be made public, PWC has debunked popular impression about the NNPC assignment, saying what it did was not forensic audit but a mere review. So, now, we must begin to contend with various kinds of audit engagements and their semantic differences, and determine what kind was ordered, and what kind was executed. Dr Okonjo-Iweala had in the heat of the missing billions controversy, and before PWC was engaged to do the job, told Nigerians repeatedly that forensic audit would be done, for in her opinion, little was missing from NNPC remittances, let alone $49bn, or even $20bn.
However, after the published report burst their bubble, the Finance minister let it be known she was not the one who gave PWC the job, let alone asked them to conduct forensic audit. All this because it is now obvious that Nigerians were sold a dummy when all along the government wanted nothing more than a review. Of the many audit engagements known to the public, nine of which are fairly familiar, it is curious that the Petroleum Resources ministry asked for a review, not forensic audit. But no harm is done. Since it is now known that what we thought was done was not done, President-elect Buhari was right to say he would again look into the issue of the missing money in the NNPC, perhaps this time, using the facility of forensic audit. It is then it can be determined whether President Jonathan had anything to hide or not.