· NASS unearths sizzling frauds in ministries, agencies, parastatals
· Regime worse in decades ¬ Forensic experts
When in May 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari took an oath of office and was sworn -in as President and Commander in- Chief of Armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, one of the promises he made to Nigerians was to stamp out corruption in the public service.
Again, the effort of President Buhari while as a military head of state was to tackle corruption headlong actually won him massive support of most Nigerians leading to his victory at the 2015 presidential election.
But regrettably as he will be bowing out of office on Monday, the 29th day of May 2023, marking the end of his eight years in office as the President of Nigeria, his eight years in office, to most analysts, corruption have not only dented the outgoing administration but placed Nigeria on the global record as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
This fact was highly demonstrated in the report of the Auditor General’s report which has exposed the corruption index in Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government (MDAs) which was further investigated and authenticated by the Senate through its Public Accounts Committee which gave an eloquent testimony of the high corruption index of the Buhari-led administration. Indeed, corruption has eaten deep into the fabric of the country within the last eight of Buhari’s administration.
Sadly, the President had assured Nigerians that he would through the anti-graft agencies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) to carry out its war against corruption.
But the Auditor General’s report revealed that most heads of MDAs took advantage of monies stocked in Wide Service Votes to defraud the country by diverting the money to other uses and refused to pay back the loan.
For instance, in one of the cases in the Audit Report, the Senate indicted the office of the Account General of the Federation (AGF), National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC, 45 other MDAs for Financial Infractions.
The indictment followed the reports of 2017 and 2018 of Auditor General of the Federation considered by the Senate Public Accounts Committee which was upheld by the Senate in plenary.
Speaking to Senate Correspondents after presentation and approval of the reports, the Vice Chairman of Senate Public Accounts Committee, Senator Hassan Hadejia said that the Committee has been able to submit four reports to the Senate which has never happened since 1999.
Sen Hadejia explained that the 2015, 2016,2017 and 2018 reports of the auditor general have been submitted and considered by the Senate.
He assured that its committee will submit a Bill seeking strict implementation of the National Assembly recommendation on Annual Federal Audit Reports and for related matters, 2023 (SB.117) by next week which will enable the country to fight corruption.
Meanwhile, other MDAs indicted by the 2017 and 2018 report are Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Federal Ministry of Environment, National Library, Financial Reporting Council, Federal Ministry of Finance, Federal Mortgage Bank, Energy Commission, Nigerian Copyright Commission, Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Iron .
The upper chamber also indicted the Ministry of Justice, Federal Civil Service Commission, Public Complaint Commission, University of Uyo, University of Abuja, Federal University, Oye Ekiti, National Examination Council (NECO).
In another development, the upper chamber indicted the National Examination Council (NECO), for illegally awarding N6.5 billion contracts for the printing of security materials and made recommendations but the federal Executive Council under President Buhari’s watch did practically nothing to ensure repayment of that money by way of compliance with Senate resolution.
On the indictment of NECO, the Senate upheld the recommendation of the Senate Public Accounts Committee after the NECO failed to defend the allegations.
Also, the second query reads, “Examination of contracts awarded for the printing of Security and Non- Security Documents valued at ₦6,166,405,407.42 revealed that the contracts were awarded without compliance with the provisions of PART VI, Section 24 (I) of the Public Procurement Act (PPA) 2017 as amended, which states that except as provided by this Act, all procurements of goods and works by all procuring entities shall be conducted by open competitive bidding.”
The Senate, in similar circumstances indicted Works Ministry officials of N692m through the Audit Report pointing that there were no documents to back up the claims of purchase of vehicles and computer accessories covering the said amount.
In the audit report, the upper chamber alleged that officials of the Ministry of Works are enmeshed in N692 million for the purchase of vehicles, computer accessories, photocopying production and airing of special video documentary ordered refund of that money to the nation’s treasury.
Again, it is curious to learn that the Director General of Securities and Exchange Commission and his Commissioners were caught in the N594 million vehicle allowances scandal, and the Senate ordered the affected officials to refund the money to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
The decision of the Senate to indict the officials of SEC was sequel to the failure of the officials of the Commission to defend the serious allegations raised in the 2018 Auditor General report before the Senate panel.
The report of the Public Accounts Committee was upheld by the Senate recently which indicted the Commission.
It also beats one’s imagination how the Justice Ministry could not give details on how N10.4billion Judgement debt was disbursed to beneficiaries.
The upper chamber had also ordered the University of Abuja, and seven other federal universities to refund N4.7bn mismanaged funds to the coffers of the federal government.
The indictment was sequel to consideration of 2017 and 2018 report of the Senate Public Accounts Committee (SPAC) chaired by Senator Mathew Uhroghid which was approved by the Senate recently,
The Red Chamber, therefore, ordered the Ministry to stop further disbursement of the Judgement debt and the committee responsible for the disbursement should be re-constituted and evidence forwarded to the Auditor General and Senate Panel within 30 days.
In another development, Senate has ordered University of Ilorin, University of Abuja, University of Uyo, Federal University, Birnin Kebbi, Federal University, Lafia, Federal University, Wukari, Modibo Adams University of Technology, Yola and Federal University of Petroleum, Effurun, to refund N4.7 billion mismanaged by the School Managements.
The Auditor General reports for 2016 and 2017 indicted the seven universities which were upheld by the Senate Public Accounts Committee and also considered and approved by the Senate.
The breakdown showed that University of Abuja mismanaged total of N1.3 billion in 2017, Federal University of Petroleum mismanaged N1.1 billion, University of Ilorin mismanaged b- N745 million, Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA)- N467 million , Federal University, Wukari, N43 million, Federal University, Dutsinma, Katsina – N141 million, Federal University, Lafia – N32 million.
The indictment has been considered and sustained by the Senate and will be forwarded to the Secretary to Government of the Federation for further action.
On the Judgement debt, the auditor-General’s report stated that the committee saddled with the responsibility of managing the disbursement of judgement debt was dissolved in 2013.
It said that at the time when the N10.4bn was disbursed by the Ministry of Justice in 2017, the committee had yet to be reconstituted.
The report stated that lack of control, as witnessed in the disbursement of the judgement debt, could lead to loss of public funds.
Ayine, in the report, recommended that the Solicitor-General of the Federation and permanent secretary in the Ministry of Justice should immediately constitute the committee as required by law.
The report read in part, “Examination of the budget of the Federal Ministry of Justice revealed that the sum of N460.95m was appropriated for payment of judgment debts for 2016 and N10bn appropriated for 2017, totaling N10.46bn.
In a similar development, the Senate has ordered the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA ) to refund $10million fraudulently paid as legal fees, technical charges.
According to the report, NIMASA is to recover $10 million paid for legal fees and technical charges without results to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF).
The $10 million expected to be recovered was $5 million for legal fee and additional $5 million for technical charges.
The $5 million was said to be the five per cent of the $9.3 billion Nigerian hydro-carbon loss between 2013 and 2014.The law firm, not disclosed, was expected to carry out necessary legal actions that would enable NIMASA to perfect an intelligence-based efforts to track the nation’s hyrdo-carbon global movement.
The AuGF report indicated that the money was paid from Zenith Bank (UK) dollar account.
It is also interesting to learn last week that the management and board of Niger Delta Development Commission recently engaged in a fight over scandal, a huge fraud that engulfed the commission’s 2021,2022 budget.
The Senate had accused the commission of operating its budgets without approval of the National Assembly.
The chairman of the commission’s board Mrs Laureta Onochie alleged that the management was operating 367 bank accounts, yet nothing has been done by the Buhari’s led administration to investigate the allegations and bring culprits to book.
Experts in economic management who spoke to New National Star on the basis of magnanimity, described President Buhari’s eight years in government as the worst corrupt administration in the history of this country.
We have never seen this kind of large-scale corruption in Nigerian history, where almost all the agencies of government are enmeshed in high-wired corruption and the President is looking the other way,” a highly placed source in the federal ministry of finance told our report on condition of anonymity.
According to the sources, it would take his successor in office time, energy and financial discipline to remove Nigeria from the global corruption index.