The N324bn missing in MDAs

FOR the umpteenth time, the Auditor-General of the Federation’s report has unmasked monumental corruption in ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government. Time and again, the report has indicted the legislative and executive arms of government, and the story this time is no different. It is a story of unretired advances, irregular award of contracts, dubious spending, unapproved allowances, payment for services not executed and payment without voucher. It cannot be cheery news that 27 MDAs failed to account for N323.5 billion in 2019, violating rules on payments, remittances and tax, and dispensing with paragraph 415 of the government’s Financial Regulations requiring all officers responsible for expenditure to exercise due economy, as money must not be spent merely because it has been voted. In the period under review, internally-generated revenues and other funds not remitted to the government by 15 MDAs amounted to N127.1 billion. Federal agencies fully funded from the treasury are mandated by law to remit all of their internally generated revenue to the government’s central account.

Of the N127.1 billion unremitted funds, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) recorded the highest figure, namely N125 billion. Nine MDAs spent N49.5 billion on items not budgeted for. Out of this sum, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development alone spent N48 billion. This is actually a regular pattern. In February this year, we noted that the queries by the office of the Auditor-General  had become routine in the last few years when the MDAs basked in mind-boggling corruption while the Muhammadu Buhari administration talked tough about cleaning up the system but did nothing concrete to address the bourgeoning rot. For instance, in a report considered by the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, the Auditor General queried the Ministry of Petroleum Resources for printing awareness leaflets on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) for the sum of N98.4 million without due process. The committee also found that N39 million was paid into the accounts of two members of staff in the ministry for “project monitoring” within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

As we argued, it was telling that similar reports had indicted a number of MDAS in the past without any consequences, and Nigerians must be distressed by the fact that the financial breaches frequently highlighted were taking place in spite of the expected oversight functions of the National Assembly, the existence of anti-graft agencies and the “avowed commitment” of the Buhari administration to the war against corruption. In September 2019, while the executive was proposing the 2020 budget, we urged the Federal Government and the National Assembly to reflect on the report by the Auditor-General lamenting the gross violation of statutory financial reporting obligations by MDAs and the Presidency. A breakdown of that report showed that government agencies had been increasingly more reckless with public finance, with 323 agencies failing to submit reports in 2016, as against 148 in 2014 and 215 in 2015. The State House, Office of the Chief of Staff to the President, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and 62 other MDAs topped the list of government offices with outstanding personal advances estimated at N4.87 billion as of December 31, 2016. The report also detailed unremitted deductions worth more than N3.79 billion involving over 40 agencies, including the presidency, EFCC and the National Assembly.

Against this backdrop, it can be no surprise that about N324bn is currently unaccounted for by the MDAs. That is the way the government wants it. In Nigeria, public finance is frequently subjected to magical realism. Money grows wings and vanishes into thin air. Sometimes, the culprit, as a member of staff of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) once revealed, is an unidentified spiritual snake! Just how would federal ministries, departments and agencies fail to account for N323.5 billion if Nigeria was a society that imposed swift and severe consequences on infractions? If offenders were regularly caught and jailed for hundreds of years for these monumental crimes, very few public servants would require a sermon before sitting up and cleaning up their act. It is galling that while, over time, the Auditor General’s reports have consistently shown mind-boggling frauds, the perpetrators have not been taken to court, let alone slammed behind bars. This society keeps celebrating criminals while expecting to grow and develop, which is why the thieves in the public service become bolder and more resilient each budget season, causing the long-suffering populace untold pain. There must be a review of the system that permits such gross injustice.

The sacred cows in the system ought to be purged. Anything short of this is a joke.