A recent report by the nation’s Accountant General on the financial status of some Ministries, Department and Agencies, MDAs presents a recurring moral deficit in several sectors in the country.
The report is not strange nor novel in our history but a situation where we are unable to contain the same concerns over several decades of nationhood despite the large number of agencies empowered to deal with corruption speak volume of the ineffectiveness of the agencies themselves.
Nigerians are often disappointed following the various reports of the unending criminality in the MDAs hardly ever generates any emotions anymore. In the latest episode that is quite reflective of previous reports, the Auditor-General uncovered irregular payment for contracts amounting to N197.72 billion in the Rural Electrification Agency; the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc, a subsidiary of Central Bank of Nigeria ,CBN; the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company ,NSPM, and other ministries, departments, and agencies in the country.
The actions of these agencies are in violation of Section 16(21) of the Public Procurement Act (PPA) 2007 which requires strict adherence to procurement plans and mandatory approvals before contract awards. As the audit report shows, these requirements were often ignored or violated by the MDAs. Among other oddities, the report showed that the NSPM, a subsidiary of the CBN, was responsible for the highest amount of due process violations totaling N14.14 billion, while the Corporate Affairs Commission ,CAC, had the least, put at N8.98 million. The number of contracts awarded in violation of due process by 24 MDAs amounted to the sum of N20,334,104,016.27.
We are informed that the so-called MDAs are cesspools of corruption. Hardly anyone doubts the fact that they are conduits through which public funds are regularly siphoned by unscrupulous civil servants and their political collaborators, making the government to be nothing more than a superstructure mounted on the people’s pain. More often than not, Nigerian leaders complain, even publicly agonise about, the parlous state of the country’s finances, yet massive stealing goes on unabated in the MDAs. Recently, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ,EFCC, recorded its largest single asset recovery in its history following the final forfeiture of an estate comprising 753 duplexes and apartments in Abuja. The estate, covering 150,500 square metres in Lokogoma District, was forfeited to the Federal Government by the order of Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie on Monday, December 2. The forfeited estate was reportedly built by a former senior government official who is currently under investigation by the anti-graft agency.
Enabled by the political office holders who are supposed to provide a direction and chart the path towards accountability in public service, civil servants loot the country blind, setting up themselves for a life of luxury in retirement, undercutting the programmes and policies of the government that they are supposed to implement. The structure of the country and the civil/public service have so many loopholes that give room for stealing by government officials. The officials flout the government’s financial disclosure rules with impunity. This, as we have been keen to show over the years, is simply because there is no consequence for fraud. Our authorities who have the power to whip these agencies into line, do not sanction them. It allocates fresh funds to them when they have yet to account for previous expenditure. Unspent funds should ordinarily be remitted into the government account, but they are simply embezzled or frittered away without recourse financial regulations.
For years, financial corruption has been a major albatross in the country. In many cases, Nigerians interacting with these MDAs cannot even get anything done until they have coughed up bribes.
We would not take for granted the Statistics of NBS in July depicting that Nigerians paid N721 billion as bribes to public officials in 2023. That is indeed ridiculous and must be checked should we are serious about dealing with corruption in high places.
The anti-graft agencies and the judiciary must revisit their modus operandi to save us from this distending embarrassment.
