LAGOS, Nigeria, May 5 (UPI) -- An audit by the American Hart Group accounting firm of Nigeria's oil and gas industry has uncovered massive discrepancies.
The Daily Champion reported on May 4 that Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has held up the report after the Hart Group was unable to account for a $250 million net difference and $1.264 billion gross difference in the oil and gas sector accounts.
Hart Group official Chris Nurse said the accounts could not be reconciled due to difference in the reports of oil companies and shoddy records kept by the Central Bank of Nigeria, commenting simply, "The quality of the records in the early years was really not good."
The comprehensive audit of the oil and gas sector was commissioned by the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative.
On May 3 Nurse was presenting the audit results to the Federal Executive Council when Obasanjo halted him and ordered Hart Group to resolve the discrepancies, stating that if the amount was not resolved, Nigerians might be tempted to think the money was stolen.
Obasanjo said, "If you know the society which I have the fortune of leading, it is as good as somebody has gone away with $1.264 billion and it cannot be anybody other than Obasanjo. This is the truth. We have had a case like this before."
Nurse commented, "What we have got to at the moment is that the oil companies and the bank have agreed that this is the net difference. What has not happened as far I know at least, is any further investigation on a bilateral basis by the bank and the companies and that is one of the recommendations that we think should happen before going forward."
