“the absence of description of the purpose of funds released to MDAs makes it difficult to establish accountable expenditure.”
For blatant neglect of accountability and Nigeria’s Open Government Initiative, the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre) has dragged the Accountant General to court over ₦173 billion without description.
Per Dataphyte’s investigations, the funds were paid to various Ministries, Departments and parastatals during COVID-19. The ministries, parastatals including security agencies, educational institutes and other contractors received some N173b from the federal purse in the first half of 2020 without accountable documentation.
In a motion ex parte filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, HEDA is seeking the order of mandamus to compel the Accountant General of the Federation (AG) to release details of the expenditure up to May 29, 2020.
Dataphyte: Nigeria’s OTP, NOCOPO stained with a lack of accountability, deleted documents
In the last two years, Dataphyte has reported various infractions and shortcomings of President Muhammadu Buhari’s open government initiatives. The data platform has also proffered suggestions on how best to run open data platforms by government entities.
In 2019, irregularities marked by opacity trailed a ₦510 billion payout by the Federal Government (FG). And by the first four months of 2020, most significantly, as COVID-19 hit the world, FG paid ₦173 Billion with no description and ‘purpose’ of payment. The report analysed data on the Open Treasury Portal between January and April 2020 and found cumulative records of 1,353 payments to various ministries, parastatals, security agencies, educational institutes, among others with no description.
Further, a breakdown of the figures showed that the zero description payments in January and February 2020 were ₦5.16 billion and ₦67.76 billion, respectively. In March and April 2020, FG also paid ₦85.2 billion and ₦15.22 billion to various contractors, Dataphyte had reported.
Likewise, Dataphyte also reported how the Federal Ministry of Water Resources tampered with the contracting details on the Nigeria Open Contracting Portal (NOCOPO) after the FOI request. The ministry reduced the contract’s cost by ₦326 million from ₦1.3 billion to ₦1.02 billion it had earlier posted on the website. Another report examined how inefficiency and lack of transparency flaw CBN’s COVID-19 loan to small businesses amidst a concealed COVID-19 audit report by the National Assembly and the Audit Office.
Experts expressed worry that the situation might weaken the media and civil society lens of accountability. Civic organisations, including Dataphyte, have also criticised this display of opacity. The data development outfit has already detailed several instances of foul play with COVID-19 spending, highlighting discrepancies in contracting, blurred processes, and overinflated prices from MDAs.
Historical Case Put AG’s Accounting Credentials at Stake
Hinging it as another historical case, HEDA said the AG’s professionalism and his association or membership of local and international accounting groups are at stake if the Court finds him guilty.
The Accountant General passes the blame of irregularities on Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), an excuse HEDA says threatens his accounting profession.
The group cites Section 6 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, order 26 rule 6 of the Federal High Court as the basis for the judges’ powers.
HEDA submitted as exhibit the publication concerning Dataphyte’s consortium titled “173 Billion payments without Description Defeats Nigeria’s Open Government Initiative”.
Zero Description Payments Make It Difficult To Establish Accountable Expenditure – HEDA’s Chair, Olanrewaju Suraju
HEDA’s Chairman, Mr Olanrewaju Suraju, said the N173b payment raises concern about how government parastatals expend public funds, adding that his group seeks details to determine if the funds were judiciously utilised and in the public interest.
The Dataphyte analysis of data on the open Treasury Portal had indicated that the whopping sum of ₦173 billion worth 1,353 payments was made to various parastatals between January 2020 and April 2020 without descriptions.
HEDA noted that the AG’s reluctance to release details of the COVID 19 expenditures after it made several requests in writing prompted the organisation to resort to legal redress. The group added that it is in the public interest that the details were released.
The development organisation submitted that there are concrete indications that the office of the Accountant General of the Federation has continued to neglect proper description of payments issued to contractors and government agencies, expressing fear that the trend may defeat transparency and accountability, key elements necessary for good governance.
“The way these payments were made suggests unprofessional accounting procedures that will undermine transparency,” Suraju said.
Nigeria is presently regarded as one of the most corrupt countries globally, positioned at the lowest rung of Transparency International (TI) ratings.
Dataphyte’s findings show that most of the payments were made to contractors under the National Rural Electrification Agency, National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Nigerian Navy, Federal Fire Service, Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, National Inland Waterways Authority.
Other end-users were the Nigerian Airforce, Nigerian Defence Academy, Nigerian Correctional Service, and Federal Ministry of Niger-Delta.
The group said the absence of a description of the purpose of funds released to MDAs makes it challenging to establish accountable expenditure. The case has been assigned to Court 3, Federal High Court, Abuja.