THE discovery of 257 phony projects worth N20.138billion by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) during the review of the 2021 budget is disturbing. It is an indication that the war against graft is not being waged on all fronts, especially in the Federal Government’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). It also raises concern about the rising financial malfeasance in the MDAs. The Chairman of ICPC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, revealed the discovery of the duplicated projects at the third national summit on Diminishing Corruption in the public sector, with the theme: “Corruption and Cost of Governance, New Imperatives for Fiscal Transparency” organised by the Office of Government of the Federation, in collaboration with the ICPC.
It is sad that budget padding is fast becoming part of the nation’s budgeting system. Everything must be done to discourage the rising financial crime. The money involved can be used to upgrade some of the nation’s tertiary health institutions or revamp the education sector. Without doubt, the government has lost a lot of money through official corruption. It is time to plug all the loopholes that led to such financial leakages.
Although the duplicated projects and the whopping amount involved had been reported to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, the ugly development is a wake-up call on those in charge of budget matters to be more vigilant in future. The government should diligently probe the growing corruption in the MDAs and bring to justice all those involved. We believe that meting adequate punishment to corrupt government officials is the only way to prevent the recurring corruption in the MDAs.
It is commendable that the ICPC officials were able to detect these infractions during the review of the 2021 budget. This is not the first time of such discovery. And it is not likely to be the last of such incidents until some people are punished for the infractions.
Apart from the executive arm of government, there are strong indications that budget padding might have been extended to the legislative and judicial arms of government. The ICPC should beam its searchlight on them.
The financial malfeasance in the MDAs has led to loss of huge revenues. A few years ago, an audit report by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (AuGF) uncovered N18.3 billion infractions in 25 MDAs. Not less than 17 others were reported to have failed to remit N54.6billion Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to government treasury.
Perhaps, the most revealing and shocking was the Annual Report from the Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF) that unearthed irregularities in the award, execution and payment in procurement across no fewer than 25 MDAs totalling N18.3billion, in addition to non-remittance of N54billion IGR from Value Added Tax (VAT), withholding Tax, and Stamp Duties. It examined the level of compliance of MDAs with the provisions of the Public Procurement Act 2007, particularly Sections 19, 24 and 25 as they relate to their procurement process. Last year, Chairman of the ICPC revealed that N2.67 billion meant for the school feeding programme in some Federal Government colleges during the COVID-19 lockdown ended up in personal accounts of top officials of MDAs. Besides, another N2.5 billion was reportedly misappropriated by a senior civil servant in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and his cronies.
We call on the Federal Government to muster the political will to end the rot in the MDAs. The war against corruption must begin with those in the MDAs. Ignoring the rot in the MDAs will vitiate the present administration’s vision in tackling corruption in the country.
The growing culture of corruption in the MDAs, whether through budget padding or illegal recruitment, must be arrested forthwith. Unfortunately, many audit reports had repeatedly found these government agencies wanting in providing the necessary information in line with General Acceptable Accounting Principles (GAAP). Since this is a key requirement for financial transparency and accountability, we want the narrative to change.