Odidison Omankhanlen, Lagos - 31.08.2009

THERE are strong indications that many employees in the auditing departments of some of the accounting and auditing firms that audited the accounts of the five banks that failed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Commission (NDIC) examination, will be sanctioned.

In response to calls by experts and stakeholders in the financial sector, that the bank executives cannot be punished in isolation against the backdrop that the various auditing firms had always given clean bill of health to the banks, various professional bodies had decided to punish their erring members.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that secret probes were already being conducted on the respective audit firms with a view to bringing them to book. CBN governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, had said the chief executives of the banks were sacked due to high level of non performing loans in the five banks which was attributable to poor corporate governance practices, lax credit administration processes and the absence or non-adherence to the banks’ credit risk management practices.

He put the total loan portfolios of the five banks at N2,801.92 billion, margin loans amounted to N456.28 billion and exposure to oil and gas was N487.02 billion, while aggregate non-performing loans stood at Nl.143 trillion representing 40.81 per cent.

In a related development, there are strong indications that the weekend London Road Show embarked upon by the CBN and other industry stakeholders to woo foreign investors into the sector might be a huge waste of scarce resources and exercise in futility.

Investigations by the Nigerian Tribune revealed that since the CBN governor assumed office, foreign investors and banks had been cautious about his policy direction, adding that the recent sack of top executives of five banks confirmed the fears of the foreigners.


http://www.tribune.com.ng/31082009/news/news4.html