The padding of budgets by civil servants across the Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) has shown that the war against graft is not as effective as it should be. The unending fraud in the MDAs obtains because those involved have not been caught and adequately punished. The fact that some people get away with corruption has emboldened others to follow the evil way.
A recent report by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Commission (ICPC) has confirmed the endemic corruption in the MDAs. The chairman of the agency, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, recently disclosed that the N13.59 trillion 2021 Federal Budget was ‘padded’ by the various MDAs. Also, project duplication worth N100 billion was inserted into the N17trillion 2022 budget. This includes the N49.9billion that had been tracked as salaries for “ghost” or non-existent workers between January and June this year.
The ICPC boss revealed this during an interface with the Senate Committee on Finance headed by Senator Solomon Adeola. The names of the MDAs involved in the fraud have been forwarded to the Senate Committee on Finance for necessary sanctions, according to the ICPC chairman. He lamented that if the fraud was not uncovered, the amount would have been wasted by the Federal Government on duplicated projects for the same purpose in the 2023 budget.
In that connection, the relevant committees of the National Assembly have been advised to be on the look-out for such project duplication in the implementation of the 2023 budget. It is commendable that the agency has uncovered monumental corruption in the affected MDAs. Corruption in the MDAs is no longer new. Financial malfeasance has over time been rife in the MDAs. For instance, in its 2017 audited financial report of the MDAs, the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (AuGF) revealed that 265 MDAs did not account for over N300billion. Similarly, the 2016 AuGF report uncovered N450billion unremitted funds between 2010 and 2015. This occurred despite the N40trillion disbursed to them.
The unbridled corruption in the MDAs requires deterring sanctions against the culprits. Civil servants must not be allowed to get away with stolen wealth. They should be punished adequately. Apart from the ICPC report being an indictment on the poor performances of the affected MDAs, it would have been apt if the names of the MDAs were made public at least to shame such agencies and their heads.
The recurring corruption in the MDAs indicates that accounting procedures are being breached. They do not even observe the guidelines for the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
By the provisions of the Financial Regulation 3210(v), Heads of government agencies and commissions, are required to submit details of both the audited accounts and management reports to the AuGF not later than May 31 of the following year. It is not certain that this provision is strictly observed.
Even though the relevant rules of the National Assembly stipulate that defaulting agencies should be sanctioned and stiff penalties imposed on the chief accounting officers for violating the rules for withholding the statement of account, it is yet to be seen if any of the chief accounting officers have been punished on account of breaching the regulations. This has made it possible for the agencies and their heads to run the affairs of their respective agencies with impunity.
It is despicable that while the government is in dire financial straits and in a borrowing binge to meet some of its pressing obligations, some MDAs and their accounting officers are siphoning public funds. Early this year, the current AuGF, Adolphus Aghughu, while submitting the 2019 Audit Report of the MDAs, noted that his office uncovered massive unverified balances in the consolidated financial statements totalling N4.97trillion.
The queries issued to the affected MDAs were not honoured by their heads. This smacks of extreme impunity that has become the bane of most MDAs. Unless the corruption in the MDAs is quickly tackled, it is likely to continue unabated. The National Assembly should decisively deal with MDAs that fail to meet all accountability requirements stipulated by the law, and also refuse to approve budgets for any MDA that defaults in its statutory compliance duties.