The House of Representatives yesterday resolved to investigate the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Kayode Fayemi, for engaging PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC), alleged to be discredited globally for corruption, to audit Ajaokuta Steel Company, ahead of its concessioning. The Green chamber also resolved to probe whether the Minister has any pecuniary interest in Greenwhich Trust Ltd, which he appointed to serve as Transaction Advicer for Ajaokuta Steel.
Consequently, the House mandated its Ad-hoc Committee on Ajaokuta Steel to probe why Fayemi engaged PwC to audit the company without due process.
Besides, the House also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to stop the Minister of Solid Minerals from proceeding with the concessioning of Ajaokuta Steel Company, pending its review of the entire process in the interest of the economy and the fight against corruption.
The House also resolved to commence the process of amending the Privatisation Act, so as to delete Ajaokuta Steel Company from the schedule of companies that could be privatised.
This followed the adoption of a motion sponsored by Ahmed Yerima and 24 others at yesterday’s plenary, calling for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the engagement of PwC to audit Ajaokuta Steel.
Recall that the House, a fortnight ago, passed a vote of no confidence on Fayemi for shunning a special sitting organised by the Green Chamber on Ajaokuta.
Yerima, who moved the motion on behalf of other sponsors informed the House that “the audit of Ajaokuta Steel Company was being undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers – a globally discredited firm having been sanctioned in India, with a two-year audit ban for infractions of over $1 billion; and in Brazil for which it paid $50 million as fine; the United Kingdom for £5.1 million, the largest ever sanction imposed by the UK regulator. The company was also said to have paid $225 million and $25 million respectively as fines to TYCO shareholders in the US and Bank of Tokyo – Mitsubishi, where it was implicated for money laundering for Iran, Sudan and Myanmar, blacklisted for roles in terrorism and human rights abuses, among other infractions and irregularities in their operations, which have left its reputation in tatters.”
The lawmaker added that there are “allegations that PwC was informally engaged by Global Steel to assist and advise it on how to recover Ajaokuta Steel Company and National Iron Ore Company (NIOMCO), Itakpe, from the Federal Government of Nigeria in 2012 at the onset of negotiations.”
Meanwhile, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, in its reaction to the House debate said it has not contracted any transaction adviser for the concessioning of Ajaokuta Steel Company, as wrongly asserted by the House.
Spokesman to the Minister, Mr. Olayinka Oyebode, said the process for the appointment of a Transaction Adviser was on, but cannot be completed until it gets the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
He also said “the ministry has not spent a dime from the N2,096,500.00 appropriated by the House for the concessioning of Ajaokuta Steel Company (in the 2017 Appropriation Law).”
