Senate’s directive on N300bn refund

PENULTIMATE week, the Senate approved the 2015 report of its committee on Public Accounts which indicted 59 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the government, asking them to return over N300 billion to the Federation Account. In addition, it faulted the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) over its non-remittance of N3.8 trillion realised from crude oil sales in 2015 alone while mandating the anti-graft agencies, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to go after the government officials responsible for diverting funds during the year under review. For over a year, the Senate Committee on Public Accounts had been investigating the expenditures by federal government agencies from 2015 – 2018 based on audit report by the Auditor-General for the Federation.

Chairman of the committee, Senator Mathew Urhoghide, disclosed that 114 MDAs were queried in the 2015 audit report, out of which 59 had their queries sustained after the probe.

After an exhaustive debate on the report, the Senate mandated the indicted agencies to comply with its resolution within 60 days. The Red Chamber faulted the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation for under-remitting the sum of N3,878,955,039,855.73 revenue from domestic crude oil sales to the Federation Account for the period of January to December 2015. It called on the corporation to desist from further deduction at source as this contravenes Section 162(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). It also mandated the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) or any other approving authority to, as a matter of urgency, approve an agreed percentage which should be allocated to NNPC monthly as operational cost to ensure that its operations ran smoothly. It also demanded the sanctioning of accounting officers of MDAs in accordance with the provision of Rule 3124 of Financial Regulations, giving the Accountant- General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, a 90-day ultimatum to identify and sanction officers responsible for the mismanagement of public funds to the tune of N54,151,360,000 ($274,280,000.00) as exchange loss on External Loans.

The Accountant General is expected to report back to the Senate Committee on Public Accounts within 90 days.

The Senate also gave another 90-day timeline for the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to set in motion the process of recovery of internal loans made from other funds which stand at N390,288,085,668.92.

The recovered fund is to be paid back into the Special Funds Accounts. In a similar vein, the Senate directed the Accountant-General of the Federation to recover the sum of N378,879,674.99 tax revenue from Webb Fontaine Ltd and remit same to the Federal Inland Revenue Service within six months. It also called for a review of all companies that were paid from the out-flow of one per cent CISS Account which amounted to N39,557,671,843.97. It directed the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to refund the sum of $37,627,939.75 to the Federal Government’s coffers due to lack of diligence in the review of its charges on a contract of towage services. The EFCC is to subject the Accounting Officer to investigation in accordance with Rule 3112 (I and II) of the Financial Regulations.

To say the least, the infractions uncovered by the Accountant-General of the Federation and confirmed by the Senate Committee on Public Accounts are humongous.

They manifest grand larceny and portray the operations of the various departments and agencies as a criminal enterprise. It is indeed difficult to fathom how and why public officials got the effrontery to engage in such blatant theft of public funds, but much of the miasma can in fact be linked to the poor workings of the National Assembly and the Presidency. If fighting corruption were not reduced to mere verbal pronouncements, and if governance was conscionable and data-driven, much of the mindless corruption under reference would arguably not have been perpetrated.

Going by the report under reference, some big shots in the NNPC, NPA, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Small Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN), Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET), National Hospital, Abuja, Rural Electrification Agency, University of Jos Teaching Hospital, Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Aro, Abeokuta, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Ministry of Niger Delta, Federal Mortgage Bank, Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the National Agency for Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) have all committed unspeakable financial crimes against the Nigerian people. But it is important to bear in mind that the anti-graft agencies mandated to prosecute the brains behind the identified financial crimes are themselves not above board. For instance, time and again, the EFCC has been nailed by the Auditor-General’s reports for violating financial reporting rules, and even the Accountant General’s office was recently accused by the Senate of releasing funds to certain agencies without legislative approval. The inescapable conclusion is that Nigerians are merely being taken for a ride with ceaseless reports of financial crimes.

Pray, just how can the National Assembly keep approving budgets for defaulting agencies? How do you give fresh funds to those who have mismanaged previous releases?

Is that not encouraging them to steal more? The lawmakers must change course. The oversight process needs to be strengthened. The defaulters need to rot in jail. Nigerians cannot be expected to be happy until that is done.