ICPC Blasts MDAs For Pervasive Budget Scam
Indicts health, education sectors for massive abuses
BY COBHAM NSA, ABUJA – Accusations of fraudulent practices within government’s Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) escalated on Wednesday with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) taking the centre stage to criticise the nation’s flawed budgeting system.
The anti-graft agency is angry that civil servants are so manipulative in their actions that MDAs’ budgets have ultimately become drainpipes for defrauding the system.
This is the position by Chairman of ICPC, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye (SAN) at an interactive forum organised by Budget Office of the federation and the ICPC with Directors of Finance and Accounts and Directors of Internal Audit in Abuja on Wednesday.
An disappointed Owasanoye said the Commission discovered several layers of corrupt practices perpetuated by civil servants across the MDAs and is therefore determined to not only check the dishonest practice but also bring the culprits to book.
The ICPC boss, who disclosed that extensive financial breaches were exposed during the Commission’s System Study Review of Budget Implementation, said: “There was budget manipulation by most MDAs, which resulted in MDAs receiving both appropriation and releases beyond their actual needs.”
According to him; “These surpluses were open to the risk of being misappropriated, as is tradition.”
“In 2019, ICPC reviewed 208 agencies of government that are funded from the Federal Treasury and came up with outstanding results, which included discovery of N31.8 billion personnel cost surpluses for 2017 and 2018, and misapplication of N19.8 billion and N9.2 billion from Personnel Cost and Capital Fund respectively”, the ICPC chairman said.
Particularly indicting some sectors for indulging in these manipulations, Prof Owasanoye said it was cheering these discoveries ensured that about “N42 billion unspent surplus allocations for personnel cost for 2019 alone was blocked from possible abuse and pilfering, mostly from health and some educational institutions”.
However, he lamented that “despite confronting erring ministries and MDAs with Federal circulars prohibiting these activities, the infractions continue; thus, stronger measures on the part of government and anti-corruption agencies are inevitable”.
The Commission chairman, who also addressed issues relating to purported manipulations of year 2020 budget implementation, said: “A number of investigations are ongoing on this as we have instituted a mechanism for continuous review of current and subsequent Annual Audit Reports.”
Furthermore, he said scrutiny of personnel cost allocation breaches indicated that a substantial part of the budget was spent on matters not related to personnel cost, adding;
“These expenditure types included Duty Tour Allowance (DTA) and estacodes, electricity, water and sewage bills, procurement of diesel and stationery, payment of transport allowance and flight fares, payment of wages for outsourced services and ad hoc (locum, visiting and, at times, illegal employees), as well as illegal allowances.”
On the Capital Development Fund, Prof Owasanoye said investigations showed; “established huge expenditure on both personnel and overhead-related items, thus frustrating government’s capacity for infrastructural development”.
Also addressing the obvious threat posed to public financial system by Payments Without Description (OTP), the ICPC chief said this arrangement deprives the public of adequate information on payments, thus frustrating enhanced transparency and openness in the financial system
Speaking on its review of payments’ streams in Federal Unity Schools, the Commission admitted uncovering a number of issues, saying; “Our preliminary investigations showed that meal subsidy released to schools before and during lockdown were used for several other purposes of recurrent nature in addition to procurement of food supplies during school sessions and settlement of outstanding obligations.
“Consequent on our exposure of the matter, the Government withheld or reduced releases to the FGCs from June 2020 thus saving N6.1billion that the Schools argue should cancel out any recoveries that ICPC might have directed.”
“The figures are still being reconciled while the observations on the general payment systems and financial management in the sector will be forwarded to the Ministry and the Schools for reaction or any possible defence before a final report is made”, he said.
