AMCON hires KPMG to undertake forensic audit of Arik Air

The ASSET Management Company of Nigeria, AMCON, the new management of Arik Air, has hired KPMG,  financial experts, to undertake a forensic and diagnostic audit of the finances of the airline to ascertain the true position of its finances.

According to Vanguard, the audit, will enable AMCON know with verifiable facts, what went wrong with the airline and  plug the loopholes towards stabilizing the airline. The audit report is expected to  within 12 weeks. A statement from AMOCN yesterday said: “The new management of Arik Airlines has appointed KPMG, world-class financial experts to undertake a forensic and diagnostic audit of the finances of the airline to ascertain the true status of its finances.”

The statement explained that the “audit  review will among other objectives cover the position of assets and liabilities, and their utilization; recording and utilization of loans, propriety of third party transactions; fraud controls over Procure to Pay (‘PtP’), Agents and Business Partners and Financial Reporting and Arik Airline’s financial position as at January 31, 2017. The report is expected to be delivered  within 12 weeks. “We hired KPMG to look into the financials of Arik with a fine tooth comb and advise us with verifiable facts on what went wrong with the airline. We need to do that because the outcome will help us plug the loopholes and stabilise the airline. The whole intention is to identify what went wrong with Arik to enable the new management to bring it back to full operations.” It will be recalled that the Federal Government waded into Arik Air last Thursday following daunting complaints of huge indebtedness of the airline to various creditors and the frequent interruptions in its operations, and the concern to safety and security. The new management weekend had said that “the airline does not have money to procure aviation fuel for the nine operational aircrafts because no dealer wants to sell aviation fuel to Arik if it is not on cash-and-carry basis. This also calls for public understanding because flight schedules may be realigned based on the nine aircrafts that are available, technically sound and ready for flight operations.