Indications emerged on Thursday evening that the Presidency may likely
sanction the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over its actions on errors
committed in the financial statements of Stanbic IBTC.
Loading ...In a letter dated 10th November, 2015 with reference number
FRC/2015/DIM/Regulatory/002 from the Financial Council of Nigeria
(FRC), Executive Secretary of the FRC Mr. Jim Obaze disclosed that the
Presidency directed the two financial regulatory bodies in the country
to ensure the problem is corrected and a consensus reached before the
years ended 31st December, 2013 and 2014 respectively.
Obaze said the Council had made repeated attempts to ensure the
anomalies are addressed after a meeting convened by the Chief of Staff
to President Muhammadu Buhari, Alhaji Abba Kyari between the CBN
governor Mr. Godwin Emefiele and FRC ES at the villa.
The sanction might be effective if eventually the apex bank in the
country made the error.
According to the letter titled, “RE: REGULATORY DECISION IN THE MATTER
OF FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC FOR YEARS ENDED
31ST DECEMBER, 2003 AND 2004,” the financial statement of Stanbic IBTC
“are not, and can never be in contention.”
It reads in part: “Contrary to the postulation in Paragraph 2 of the
CBN letter, we wish to state that the FRCN Act, 2011 (hereinafter
referred to as FRC Act 2011) and the financial statement of Stanbic
IBTC are not, and can never be in contention.
“The CBN letter also claimed that “the CBN revisited the Stanbic IBTC
to scrutinize all unyielding records relating to the relevant
financial statement.” This is surprising. Permit me to remind you of
the sequence event.
“On Thursday, October 29th, 2015, His Excellency, the chief of Staff
to Mr. President, met with you and I in his office and advised that we
schedule a meeting to come up with a harmonized position as two
regulators on the review of the financial statements of IBTC for years
ended 31st December, 2013 and 2014.
“He went further to state that the CBN should also be sanctioned if it
is discovered that the errors observed in the said financial
statements are true because the CBN approved the said financial
statements before they were issued.”
The letter from the FRC read further, “at that meeting, you claimed
that what the CBN has done since you received the regulatory decision
of the FRC was to get an opinion from a consortium of lawyers on the
provision of the FRC Act 2011. You said your next step was to invite
foreign lawyers to review the option you received. You even sought the
permission of His Excellency, the Chief of Staff, and read out
selected paragraphs of the opinion you got from the consortium of
lawyers. At the end of that meeting, His Excellency, the chief of
staff directed, (a.) That you should write to the management of
Stanbic IBTC directing them to immediately stop all negative publicity
being sponsored against the FRC. He directed you to send a copy of
that letter to me. (Up till now, you are yet to send a copy of that
letter to my office and Stanbic IBTC has simply increased the negative
publicity to even include my person). He also said that the FRC should
not put up any write-up again in the newspapers, but, that if Stanbic
IBTC writes on FRC, the FRC is entitled to a rejoinder.
“That a team from the CBN should visit Stanbic IBTC to review the
records again to know whether the errors were due to oversight or
incompetence or compromise; that the FRC should secure a written
position on the matter from the external auditors of Stanbic IBTC and
that you and I should agree a date to meet thereafter and review the
documents received and reach a final decision.”
However the FRC noted that the, “CBN mixed up the issues and ended up
with very wrong and hasty conclusions. The regulatory decision of the
FRC refers to a particular “Purchase and Assignment of a Banking
Application software” request made to NOTAP by Stanbic IBTC on July 3,
2013 which is another transaction other than the one your letter
addressed,” the letter added.
