* Impunity, flagrant disobedience of financial regulations Act discovered
* Irregular procurement procedures, multiple payments sighted
* As letter seeking clarification ignored
In what is fast becoming a norm by public office holders in the country, the office of the Statistician General of the Federation is enmeshed in allegations of corruption, DAUDA ISMAIL writes.
While Nigerians are grappling with a rather harsh economy occasioned by inflation, unemployment, an imbalanced exchange rate amongst others, the office of the Statistician General is enmeshed in allegations.of diversion of funds, payment to individual accounts, incidence of double payments and flagrant abuse of procurement procedures. In a document made available to AljazirahNigeria Newspapers, it was revealed that, in contradiction of Financial Regulations Act 713 that states that ‘Personal Money shall in no circumstances be paid into a government account, nor shall any public money be paid into private bank accounts’ was flagrantly disobeyed as it reflected in some payments that calls for clarifications that were paid into individual accounts with most of the said funds withdrawn over the counter.
Examples of such payments are: Ichedi Joel Sunday who was paid N4,500,000.00 as payment for stakeholders meeting on communication policy for NBS on March 18, 2023; Samuel Augustine Adakole was also paid N4,500,000,000.00 as allowance for 40 participants from South West and South East Geopolitical Zones, Gomper Christoper who was paid N4,200,000.00 and N4,200,000.00 as honorarium design of template and road map of statistics on March 18, 2022. Ibanga Frank Idongesit who was paid twice the sum of N4,500,000.00 and N4,352,000.00 for DTA allowance for 40 participants from North Central and South South Zones. Ibrahim Labigah Lohdr was paid N4,050,000.00 and as local runnings for all participants and the sum of N4,250,000.00 as transportation for North West and North East; same amount was paid for South West, South East, North Central and South South all on March 18, 2022.
Part of other payments made are N4,900,000.00 to Samuel Augustine Adakole for review and re-design of national strategy, N4,500,000.00 for 40 participants from the six zones on March 18, 2022. Ibrahim Anne Labigah Lohdir paid N3,695,400.00 and N3,750,000.00 for production of report and purchase of personal protective on same date.
Other payments made are, Aroyakorah Augustine, N4,000,000.00 for data extraction on consumer protection index, others paid for same category are Awoh Bamiyo Julius, and Afamefina Ife-oluwa Omowumi who were paid N2,240,000.00 and N1,500,000.00. Aimola Olusoyi Oluwakemi was also paid N3,500,000.00 for compilation of foreign merchandise trade statistics, Anyakorah Chuks Augustine was paid N4,400,000.00 for data collection on foreign trade, Gomper Christpher was paid N4,052,000.00 as secretariat material services and also N4,050,000.00 for running workshop on design all on same date, 18th March, 2022. Samuel Adakole was paid N4,900,000.00, N4,500,000.00 and N4,880,000.00 same day for redesign og national strategy for development, DTA for 40 participants from North West and North East and review of existing template and redesign all on 18th March, 2022. Other noticed multiple payments made same day include, Ibanga Frank Idongesit who was paid N4,900,000.00 twice and N4,850,000.00 for stakeholders eeting for information gathering of NSDS, stakeholders meeting in North West and North East respectively on same day March 18, 2022.
Multiple payments were noticably made on the same day for same purpose for different persons, such as Lateef Morounfayo Olasunkanmi, Elutade Adeyeye Akinloye, Okonkwo Linda Oluchi, Bukola Omoniyi, Mbani Juliana Nwakama etc were all paid the sum of N4,700,00.00 each as training field personnel in the six geopolitical zones, all on July 8, 2022. Others are, Paul Olayinka Idowu and Mbani Jukiana Nwakama were both paid N4,700,000.00 each for Data collection and monitoring, while Eghodaghe Nuil Bridget, Udeh Ngozi Surely and Arosanyi Victoria Abiola were all paid simultaneously sum of N4,700,000.00 for training field officers all on July 8, 2022.
Similar payments were noticed in 2023, some of which are Bakare Saheed who was paid N4,500,000.00 for 60% first tranche of data collection for north west on December 27, 2023. Ununna Christiana Nwanne, Mbani Juliana Nwamaka and Nkemakolam Chioma Hope were all paid the sum of N4,500,000.00 each for data collection in south east(Enugu) on same date. Others include, Lateef Morounfayo Olasunkanmi, Mbani Juliana Nwakamma, Elutade Adeyeye Akinloye who were all paid N4,800,000.00 each for 25% data collection and monitoring quality assurance for security appraisals in the six zones on same date. Solademi Abosede Abigail, Elutade Adeyeye Akinloye, Madu Oshinwale Felicia were also paid N4,300,000.00 for training of interviewer for security appraisal survey in the six zones on December 27, 2023.
This medium also noticed some procurement procedures that need clarifications. Of utmost concern is the payment of N34,948,837.21 paid to Louis Breed Concept Ltd for procurement of 500kva sound proof generating set on July 7, 2022, while Abeless International Ltd was also paid N13,105,813.95 for training of staffs at state level, while Derchi Consulting Solutions Ltd was paid N9,174,073.52 for stakeholder’s sensitization workshop and hiring of hall on 23rd August, 2023.
In a letter addressed to the Statistician General.of the Federation/ CEO National Bureau of Statistics dated June 20, 2024 and titled: REQUEST FOR JUSTIFICATION OF FLAGRANT DISOBEDIENCE OF FINANCIAL REGULATIONS ACT AND FEDERAL TREASURY CIRCULAR OF PAYING N5,760,605,626.14 TO INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTS, AljazirahNigeria Newspapers requested for the following clarifications:
a. The approving authority for the payments highlighted here to be paid into individual accounts despite the laid down regulations
b. Why we have these payments being made same day and in multiple instances to same persons
c. Explain the reasons behind the various double and multiple payments made at different occasions as seen above
d. The procurement procedures followed before the mentioned contract awards was done along with the technical bid document of the companies awarded
e. Full list of the mentioned stakeholders that were trained, and other payments made.
But despite the letter being duly signed, the office of the Statistician General of the Federation was yet to respond four months after receiving the letter. Speaking to this medium, a chattered accountant, Awal Mohammed.said: “It is a pity that all the news Nigerians are used to hearing are negative -corruption,.abuse of public office, insecurity, terrorism and the likes. Sometimes I wonder if these public office holders ever have even the slightest interest of the nation at heart.
“We always pray in our mosques and churches, fasting and calling on God’s help while behind, we are rotten and never do the things that he wants us to do. It’s just a pity.”
The National Bureau of Statistics is mandated to advice the Federal, State, and Local Governments on all mattes related to statistical development. developing and promoting use of statistical standards and appropriate methodologies in the National Statistical System, while developing and maintaining a comprehensive socio-economic national data bank.
