By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Nigeria’s oldest indigenous accounting firm, Akintola Williams Deloitte, has been selected by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to be among experts to audit one of the leading oil firms in the country, Oando Plc.
Last week, the capital market regulator directed the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to suspend trading on shares of the energy company.
This followed outcome of a comprehensive review of the petitions against Oando Plc, where SEC said it found out that the firm breached provisions of the Investments & Securities Act 2007, breached of the SEC Code of Corporate Governance for Public Companies, and had insider dealing.
SEC further said it found out that related party transactions were not conducted at arm’s length; and there were discrepancies in the shareholding structure of Oando Plc, amongst others.
The country’s apex capital market regulator had noted in a statement issued last week that it would carry out a forensic audit on the firm and that “to ensure the independence and transparency of the exercise, the forensic audit shall be conducted by a consortium of experts made up of auditors, lawyers, stockbrokers and registrars.”
But ThisDay newspaper, in a report last week, quoted an unnamed senior executive at SEC as saying Akintola Williams Deloitte has been chosen to lead the team of experts to handle the forensic audit of Oando.
They are to confirm investigations already carried out by the agency so as to enable SEC take the appropriate decision on the matter.
“We have been carrying out our investigation into Oando for three months and a lot of work has been done by SEC in this regard.
“But Deloitte and others will undertake the audit independently, so that they can validate what we have already done.
It is only after this that a decision will be taken on the next course of action on Oando,” the official was quoted by the newspaper.
Adedapo Adesanya