Capital market: Forensic audit report not detailed enough – Stakeholders

Minister of Finance, Mr. Olusegun Aganga
Though, the full report of the forensic audit of the accounts of the Nigerian Stock Exchange has not been officially presented to the public, experts privy to the auditors’ findings say there are some anomalies yet to be revealed. GBENGA AGBANA reports.

As stakeholders in the capital market await the official presentation of details of the forensic audit of the accounts of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, there are strong indications that the exercise was not thorough enough.

Our correspondent gathered on Saturday that there were more unethical deals in the NSE that the audit did not unearth.

Some experts, who spoke to our correspondent in confidence, raised concerns that important items, such as “the over N500m” spent on the inauguration of the NSE modern trading floor by President Umaru Yar‘Adua, and the huge amount spent on publicity by the Exchange during the boom period, were not investigated.

A competent source within the NSE, who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak on the issue, said, based on facts available to him, the forensic auditors’ findings were scanty.

He said there was a need to repeat the audit exercise, paying attention to details left out in the first audit.

Another source told our correspondent on Sunday that the forensic auditors did not raise the issue of the Investors‘ Protection Fund, which raked in millions of naira, in their findings.

The source, who also asked not to be named, said nothing was said about the controversial monstrous amount that the NSE, under the former management, spent yearly to host the chief executive‘s meeting. According to him, this amounts to about N250m.

Findings by the forensic auditors appointed by SEC to audit the NSE’s accounts had revealed that five top officials of the Nigerian Stock Exchange allegedly shared N1.13bn productivity allowance between 2006 and 2008.

A copy of the auditors’ full report, obtained by our correspondents, alleged that the immediate past Director-General, NSE, Prof. Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, was paid N592.55m in the three years, representing 52 per cent of the total amount shared.
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