* Bureau de Change used to siphon huge sums
* As billions allegedly paid into third-party accounts annually
* Over 61m paid same day in April 2023 into four different third-party accounts
* Payments made in contravention of financial regulations
From Sadiya Umar-Farouq to Betta Edu and now Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda, it appears the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development is fast carving a niche for itself as a ministry synonymous with financial scandals, DAUDA ISMAIL writes.
While the dust of the investigation into the activities of former ministers Sadiya Umar-Faroouq and Betta Edu is yet to settle, fresh allegations of financial impropriety have again emerged in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, and surprisingly spanning from 2022 under the stewardship of Umar-Farouq, through Beta Edu to 2024 under Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda who is yet to do anything about the alleged anomalies.
These fresh allegations have made many to wonder if the Human Affairs ministry is a conduit pipe in disguise.
This time, findings by AljazirahNigeria Newspapers reveal that here are fresh allegations of irregular payment of public funds to individual accounts in situations where they ought to have been paid to actual beneficiaries and which is said to have continued unabatedly under the watch of the current minister despite the recent scandal that rocked the ministry in not-too-distant past.
There were instances where funds were paid by the ministry into individual accounts supposedly to carry out public functions found their way to the accounts of companies known to be bureau de change organisations. And in blatant disregard to financial regulations, there are allegations of several payments of public funds to third parties other than direct beneficiaries.
For instance, on April, 2022, the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs is purported to have paid one Oyegbile K. Adeniran the sum of N13,640,000.00 (Thirteen million, six hundred and forty thousand naira), supposedly Payment for (Public Service Institute of Nigeria, PSIN) for the conduct of 5days training programme.”
The said payment which has generated serious concern is considered to have been made in willful contravention of Financial Regulation 613 which mandates payments of funds to direct beneficiaries and not to third parties as seen in this instance. The Public Service Institute of Nigeria, PSIN, is a government organisation well captured in the various payment platforms, and could have been paid the funds directly as it is being done by several law-abiding Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, in Nigeria.
For instance, on 21/05/2021, the ministry paid the sum of N9,900,000.00 (Nine million, nine hundred thousand Naira) to the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation Hqtrs for the organisation of Federal Public Civil Servant Training Entrepreneurship Programme, being conducted by the Public Service Institute of Nigeria, PSIN; on 06/08/2024, N12,430,000.00 was paid to the Federal Ministry of Police Affairs, being payment of course fee for organising training workshop for staff of the ministry; and on 12/08/2024, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, was paid the sum of N13,934,298.08, being payment to the PISN for Human Capital Development.
Also, on 05/04/2023, four different payments were made to accounts of four different individuals by the ministry, namely N19,947,800.00 to Oyegbile K Adeniran being payment for Technical Dialogue on Development of Humanitarian Operation Protocols (North-West Zone) holding in Kano, the Kano State capital in the second quarter of 2023; N19,997,800.00 paid to Balogun Taiwo Ibrahim, being payment of protocol dialogue on development of social audit system for National Social Investment Community Intervention Programmes, (North-East) holding in Maiduguri, Borno State in the second quarter of 2023; same Balogun Taiwo Ibrahim, being paid the sum of N19,947,800.00 for Proposal for Technical dialogue on Development of Humanitarian Operation Protocols (North-Central) holding in Illorin, Kwara State; and N19,997,800.00 paid to Umar Idris S for Proposal Dialogue on Development of social audit System for National Social Investment Community Intervention Programmes, (North-West) holding in Sokoto, Sokoto State in the second quarter of 2023.
All these payments which are only a few examples were made in contravention of financial regulations.
There are allegations that similar payments have been made by the ministry in the past, and that funds paid to supposed ‘project accountants for public functions scheduled to take place within the shores of Nigeria, have ended up in the account of a bureau de change enterprise.
In a letter dated December 11, 2024, addressed to the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, titled A Journalistic Inquest Into Allegations of Misapplication of Public Funds and Willful Violation of Financial Regulations in the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, AljazirahNigeria had after pointing out the financial infractions, requested for a detailed reaction to the allegation made with respect to the payments captured in the letter and quoted earlier; information regarding dates and venues of the purported dialogues, list of participants and any other documents that can be of use to this medium in writing and informing the public.
This medium also requested insight into legitimate factors that could necessitate the payments of funds meant for PSIN to other agencies and to individual accounts as in the case of the sum of N13,640,000.00 to PSIN by Oyegbile K Adenirain as purported in the payment made in that respect.
But despite this, the letter which was received by the office of the Permanent Secretary on the same date it was received was not replied to.
It would be recalled that the tenures of Sadiya Umar-Farouq and Betta Edu as ministers was fraught with allegations of financial impropriety. The scandal involving Edu burst open after a leaked memo revealed that the suspended minister directed the Accountant-General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, to transfer N585m to a private account owned by one Oniyelu Bridget, who the ministry claimed currently serves as the Project Accountant, Grants for Vulnerable Groups.
The minister had claimed that the N585m payment was meant for vulnerable groups in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Ogun, and Lagos States, describing the allegations against her as baseless.
The Media Assistant to the minister, Rasheed Olarewaju, then said in a statement that it was legal within the civil service for such payments to be made into private accounts of staff members, especially project accountants. These allegations had led to her suspension by the President in January 2024, who directed her to hand over to the permanent secretary in the ministry.
She then honoured the EFCC invitation and she was subjected to a marathon interrogation by investigators. By April, the EFCC revealed that it was probing 50 bank accounts, as it had recovered N30 billion in the case of the suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Betta Edu, and the ongoing probe of the ministry over alleged money laundering. And despite the rumours that she had been cleared by the anti-graft agency, the EFCC revealed in October, soon after Edu was replaced as minister that she was still under the investigation despite permanently exiting the cabinet of President Bola Tinubu.
It also disclosed that an interim report about the embattled former minister had been submitted to the President in order to take actions, adding that there are still a gamut of documents to be cross-checked regarding her dealings when she held sway in the ministry.
For Sadiya Umar-Farouq, she is being investigated for the sum of N37.1bn allegedly laundered during her tenure in office, through a contractor, James Okwete.
For one senior staff of the ministry who spoke to this medium under conditions of anonymity, she said: You see, government is a continuum, so when a new government or administrator takes over, he/she automatically inherits both the assets and liabilities incurred by the previous administration. So one would have expected the current minister, an eminent professor to have initiated an investigation into the activities of her predecessors so as to begin on a clean slate.
I think such a move would not have projected her as with hunting anybody, but a move to clear her image and to begin on a clean slate. But as it is, more rot is being discovered and she is yet to take any action in that regard. I honestly do not envy her position.
