The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) Thursday said the N13.59 trillion 2021 budget was padded by the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) with N300billion worth of duplicated projects.
The anti-corruption agency also disclosed that another N100billion worth of duplicated projects were also inserted into the N17.12trillion 2022 budget by some MDAs aside N49.9billion tracked as salary for ghost workers between January and June this year.
The startling revelations on the intercepted corrupt plans by the affected MDAs were made by ICPC Chairman Professor Bolaji Owasanoye during an interface with the Senate Committee on Finance.
The ICPC boss said the N300billion duplicated projects in the 2021 budget and N100billion in the 2022 budget were tracked through thorough scrutinisation carried out on approved projects for the various MDAs.
“N300billion would have been wasted by the Federal government on duplicated projects inserted into the 2021 budget and N100billion for same purpose in the current fiscal year if not tracked and intercepted by ICPC.
“The same preemptive move saved the country from spending N49.9billion for salaries of ghost workers put on fictitious pay roll by the fraudulent MDAs between January and June this year.
“Names of MDAs involved in projects duplications running into intercepted billions of Naira and fictitious pay rolls, are available and will be forwarded to the committee.
“The good thing about the preemptive moves made by us is that monies for the fraudulent acts were prevented from being released to the affected MDAs and it is gratifying that the Finance Ministry and Accountant General Office cooperated with us,” he said.
The ICPC boss advised relevant committees of the National Assembly to be on the lookout for such projects duplication in the proposed N19.76trillion 2023 budget.
“From our own end, detection of such projects is done by verifying their locations and names, upon which we tell the appropriate authorities not to release wrongly budgeted monies for them,” he added.
Committee elated
Impressed by the submission, the committee through its chairman, Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (APC Lagos West), said the operational cost of the agency would be increased from N1.8 billion.
“This committee is impressed by proactive ways your commission is adopting in the fight against corruption.
“Your submissions clearly show that all hope is not lost for our dear country as far as fighting corruption is concerned.
“Your operational cost which is N1.8 billion will be increased as required impetus for more proactive measures against corrupt practices across the various MDAs,” he said.
Reps query PenComs
In a related development, theHouse of Representatives Committee on Finance Thursday raised the red flag over the salary structure of the National Pension Commission (PenCom) and demanded its thorough scrutiny.
This came to fore during an interactive session on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper in Abuja.
The committee said the commission budgeted N12.02 billion for staff salary and N2.5 billion for other staff costs for 2022.
The lawmakers raised the alarm following PenCom’s Director-General Aisha Dahiru-Umar’s submission that the commission had 500 staff members but had to pay them a competitive salary to ensure they were not compromised.
She said: “The commission has to source and retain highly trained staff. We have to build capacity. We have to train our staff. That is one of the expenses. We have to train them. We have to avoid what is known as regulatory capture. What this means is that our staff will compromise.
“As we are now when we go to examine the operators, we don’t take more than drinking water from them. We don’t compromise because our staff are well paid. We must earn more than the entity we regulate,” Dahiru-Umar told the visibly shocked lawmakers.
Quick calculation
Shocked by the revelation, a member of the committee, Aminu Suleiman (APC, Kano), did a quick arithmetic with N12.02 billion and 500 staff, following which he discovered that on average, a PenCom staffer earns N2.4 million monthly.
But the PenCom boss differed with the lawmaker and said the item highlighted encompasses all allowances, including training.
“Personnel cost is not restricted to salaries; we have about 14 items here. The salaries, the allowances—the training, allowances and others come under this. Nobody earns a million in PenCom from the DG downward. Maybe we are doing it wrongly. However, we categorize everything as personnel cost,” she clarified.
But a dissatisfied Suleiman drew the attention of Dahiru-Umar to a document she submitted, which, according to him, stated specifically that the N12 billion was for salaries, and therefore, moved a motion that the commission should make available to the committee its salaries.
“Everyone knows what constitutes personnel cost. This is a personal emolument to personnel. You cannot bring other components of your expenses here. I will ask that she supply the details of the per head of all the staff,” he said.
Consequently, the deputy committee chairman, Saidu Abdulahi (APC, Niger), concurred and then ruled that the commission should provide the needed details of salaries and emolument within one week.
Although Suleiman claimed PenCom budgeted N12.3 billion, the document submitted by the commission to the committee and sighted by Premium Times, shows that the actual approved budget of the commission for salaries in 2022 was N15,346,628,233.05 and N2,511,497,822 for other costs.
The figure cited by Suleiman is the MTEF projected figure, which is not the same thing as the actual approved figure.
The commission is expected to generate N26.23 billion in 2022 and remit N2.6 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
(Additional report from Premium Times)
