Reps summon SGF, ministers, IPPIS officers over financial fraud

The House of Representatives, on Tuesday, summoned the Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, and the Minister for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr Zainab Ahmed, to appear before it and clear the air on the huge monetary expenditure of government funds without recourse to extant financial rules.

Also expected to appear before the House are: Head of the Service of the Federation, Accountant General of the Federation, Auditor General for the Federation, Chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Chief Executive Officer, Federal Character Commission as well as all the Officer in Charge of
Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS).

The resolution was passed in Abuja, during inaugural sitting/public hearing on the ‘incidences of corruption in the nominal rolls of the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government of Nigeria, held at the instance of the joint Committees on Anti-Corruption and Public Service Matters.

In his keynote address, the Speaker, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, expressed grave concern over the absence of heads of the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) at the public hearing aimed at curtailing theft of public funds by government officials.

The Speaker who was represented by the Majority Leader, Hon Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, described civil service as the permanent government, observed that men and women who make up civil service play essential roles in ensuring the government’s smooth and continuous operations from one administration to the other.

“This high responsibility carries with it the expectation of probity and professionalism. To the extent that the actual numbers of personnel who make up the civil service are inflated or populated by persons who ought not to be there, it is a matter of grave concern and deserves the most urgent response.

“The House of Representatives, by a motion duly debated and passed, has mandated the Committees on Anti-Corruption and Public Service Matters to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation to ascertain the extent of this problem, to understand the factors that have contributed to this situation and to propose remedial actions to
ensure that we adequately address the problem, and ensure that it does not reoccur in the future. This is a high mandate indeed, and the responsible Committees can only succeed with the support and cooperation of all the stakeholders.

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“I have often said, and I believe wholeheartedly, that nation-building is a joint task, and every citizen has a role to play in building a nation capable of living up to its high potential and serving the interests of all its people.

“The assignment before the Committees and all those working with them is to ensure that we deliver a civil service that serves Nigeria and Nigerians well. If we succeed, every citizen of this country, every foreigner who visits, lives or invests in Nigeria, as well as generations yet unborn, will benefit from that success. This is something we can aspire to, and from that aspiration, motivate ourselves to do the best we can to ensure the success of this present assignment.

“From inception, the 9th House of Representatives has made it a cardinal objective to address the causes and manifestations of public corruption in our country. To that end, the House has taken legislative action to strengthen the statutory framework of the anti-corruption agencies and ensure adequate budgetary allocations to fund their activities.

“We have used the constitutional oversight authority of parliament to ensure that funds allocated to the public service are efficiently and effectively used, and we have encouraged the use of technology to address operational deficiencies in the public service. We will continue in these efforts, as this is what the Nigerian people rightly expect of us,” the Speaker noted.

In his presentation, ICPC Consultant, Mr Bako Gad, informed the lawmakers that the Commission is conducting a systems review of the MDAs and their processes to uncover stolen funds from the government treasury.

According to Gad, the system review exercise has helped the government recover over N61 billion last year from the yearly unspent funds that accrue from personnel costs, saying the support of the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning has eased the exercise.

“When we introduced the systems review of the MDAs, we discovered that most of the unspent monies were from personnel costs. After payment of salaries, whatever remained would be diverted into individual pockets but we have been able to curtail that with the support of the ministry of finance,” he said.

Following in-depth revelations by the ICPC representative on how the MDAs siphon public funds, the lawmakers unanimously resolved to step down the hearing to enable the heads of the relevant agency to appear in person on a later date.

The lawmakers insisted that no other person than the heads of the MDAs were in the best position to explain in detail the information being sought by the committee to uncover stolen public funds.

While giving update on the joint Committee’s resolution, Hon. Nicholas Garba who emphasized the need to clean up public finance fraud, mostly perpetrated through personnel cost, alleged that the spate of corruption in the public service was responsible for inadequate implementation of capital projects across the country.

While noting that since the issue of corruption of nominal rolls by the MDAs was raised by stakeholders, any of the affected officers who fail to appear before the Joint Committee shall be deemed to be guilty of the allegations levelled against them.

He disclosed that the joint Committee will not hesitate to issue a warrant of arrest against any Ministers and heads of MDAs who fail to appear on the designated date.