The international consultant was hired in February 2018 to verify the accounts of the daughter of the former president José Eduardo dos Santos, who chaired the board of directors of the state oil company between June 2016 and November 2017, until she was exonerated by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço.
"The audit is concluded and the results have been submitted to the competent entities", among which the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Mining and Petroleum Resources, in addition to the IGAE and the PGR, advanced the same source, refusing to reveal the conclusions.
Sonangol is currently working with a total of about 50 consultants spread over several teams.
The company is implementing a Regeneration Program that aims to re-focus on oil activities: exploration, research and production of crude oil and natural gas, refining, natural gas liquefaction, transportation, storage, distribution and marketing of derived products.
KPMG was chosen in February 2018 to audit Sonangol's accounts, after the consultancy PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), chosen by the previous management, was ignored.
According to a presidential order that justified the deal at the time, the decision was due to the identification of a "supervening situation of conflict of interest", which forced Sonangol to "cancel the award of the contract to provide audit services to the auditor that was initially scheduled for hiring".
The same order states that there is an "urgent need" to hire a new auditor for the group, thus authorizing the adoption of a simplified hiring procedure "on a material basis", specifically aimed at auditing the individual and consolidated financial statements of Sonangol and subsidiaries for the financial years 2017, 2018 and 2019.
In December 2017, one month after Isabel dos Santos left office and was replaced by Carlos Saturnino, Sonangol declined to sign the contract with PwC for external auditing of the oil company, which had been announced on November 1st by Isabel do Santos, alleging "conflict of interest".
Sonangol said at the time that the company "had already been hired as a consultant in the transformation process" in 2016, so "the award of the same to PwC, formed a framework of conflict of interest.
PwC had already audited Sonangol's accounts in 2016, validating them, but "with reserves", namely in the nature and circumstances of the "transactions of various kinds" that the oil company maintains with the State, on the recoverability of investments made previously and also by the change in the group's accounting policy.
On Monday, PwC confirmed that it had ceased service contracts with companies controlled by the company, following the publication of news revealing suspicious transactions and allegedly fraudulent schemes.
"We strive to maintain the highest professional standards at PwC and have established expectations of consistent ethical behaviour by all PwC companies in our global network. In response to the very serious and troubling allegations raised, we have immediately begun an investigation and are working to thoroughly evaluate the facts and conclude our investigation," he commented in a statement to the Lusa agency.
The same note adds that it took "steps to close any ongoing work for entities controlled by members of the Santos family".
