MDAs: Yet another damning Auditor-General’s report

NIGERIANS reading the reports by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation detailing serial infractions by the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the government must be quite exasperated by now. Over the years, Nigerians had been shell-shocked, horrified, outraged and disappointed following the various reports, and news of the unending criminality in the MDAs hardly ever generates any emotions anymore. In the latest report that is quite reflective of previous reports, the Auditor-General uncovered irregular payment for contracts amounting to N197.72 billion in the Rural Electrification Agency; the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc, a subsidiary of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPM) and other ministries, departments, and agencies in the country.

The actions of these agencies are in violation of Section 16(21) of the Public Procurement Act (PPA) 2007 which requires strict adherence to procurement plans and mandatory approvals before contract awards. As the audit report shows, these requirements were often ignored or violated by the MDAs. Among other oddities, the report showed that the NSPM, a subsidiary of the CBN, was responsible for the highest amount of due process violations totaling N14.14 billion, while the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) had the least, put at N8.98 million. The number of contracts awarded in violation of due process by 24 MDAs amounted to the sum of N20,334,104,016.27.

The fact has long been established that the so-called MDAs are cesspools of corruption. Hardly anyone doubts the fact that they are conduits through which public funds are regularly siphoned by unscrupulous civil servants and their political collaborators, making the government to be nothing more than a superstructure mounted on the people’s pain. More often than not, Nigerian leaders complain, even publicly agonise about, the parlous state of the country’s finances, yet massive and monumental stealing goes on unabated in the MDAs. Only this week, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recorded its largest single asset recovery in its history following the final forfeiture of an estate comprising 753 duplexes and apartments in Abuja. The estate, covering 150,500 square metres in Lokogoma District, was forfeited to the Federal Government by the order of Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie on Monday, December 2. The forfeited estate was reportedly built by a former senior government official who is currently under investigation by the anti-graft agency.

Enabled by the political officeholders who are supposed to provide a direction and chart the path towards accountability in public service, civil servants loot the country blind, setting up themselves for a life of luxury in retirement, undercutting the programmes and policies of the government that they are supposed to implement. The structure of the country and the civil/public service have so many loopholes that give room for stealing by government officials. Time and again, the reports by the Auditor-General show that the MDAs are centres of sleaze. The officials flout the government’s financial disclosure rules with impunity. This, as we have been keen to show over the years, is simply because there is no consequence for fraud. The National Assembly, which has the power to whip these agencies into line, does not sanction them. It allocates fresh funds to them when they have yet to account for previous expenditure. Unspent funds should ordinarily be remitted into the government account, but they are simply embezzled or frittered away by the sleazebags in the agencies. There is total lack of accountability and transparency, and the country pays for this by way of underdevelopment.

For years, financial corruption has been a major albatross in the country. In many cases, Nigerians interacting with these MDAs cannot even get anything done until they have coughed up bribes. For instance, a survey report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in July this year showed that Nigerians paid N721 billion as bribes to public officials in 2023. Thus, corrupt civil servants rob the country and ordinary citizens at the same time. It should then be clear that unless carefully thought out, deliberate and systematic steps are taken by the political leadership to tackle civil service corruption head-on, the present culture of sleaze will continue ad infinitum and will be even further strengthened from year to year. The government has to go beyond lamenting corruption in the civil service: it should lead by example, exposing and punishing corrupt practices within its own ranks, and ensuring that the bad eggs in the MDAs are weeded out and prosecuted to the fullest extent allowed by law. On its part, the judiciary should ensure that these lawbreakers get the strictest sentences.

The Nigerian public is fatigued from reading corruption stories. The government has a duty to be honest, transparent and accountable. It should make corrupt civil servants pay dearly for their crimes against the country. Not doing so amounts to criminal abdication of duty.