Senators last week during consideration of audit reports, lamented over perceived incapacitation of the National Assembly and the office of Auditor – General for the Federation, in the war against corruption. TAIYE ODEWALE reports
Meaning of corruption
As simply defined in the Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary, corruption is dishonest behaviour.
It is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offence committed by a person or organisation entrusted with a position of authority.
It entails abuse of power, privileges for personal gains or illicit benefits. Nefarious acts such as bribery, stealing, embezzlement, swindling etc, are all categorised as corruption related offences in Nigeria and different agencies empowered by relevant laws to fight them.
Office of Auditor-General as in – house mechanism against corruption
Being an act more endemic in the public sector in Nigeria, required mechanisms were put in place in civil service to prevent, detect and fight it.
One of such mechanisms is the auditing units or departments in all public establishments which is headed by an Auditor General for the Federation at the federal level and Auditor – General of the state at state levels.
As stipulated by section 85 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), the office of Auditor – General of the Federation is expected to audit accounts of all government owned Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on yearly basis and submit reports for further investigations by both chambers of the National Assembly who are also empowered by relevant provisions of the Constitution to look into how public funds are expended by the various agencies.
Incapacitation of the in – house mechanism
Auditing of accounts of MDAs by the office of Auditor General as envisioned and planned against corrupt practices by accounting officers across the various MDAs, supposed to be on yearly basis but over the years, due to series of factors, the auditing is done several years in arrears.
For instance, when the 9th National Assembly got inaugurated in June, 2019, the first audit report it received from the office of Auditor – General, was that of 2015 in November 2019 which the Senate through its Committee on Public Accounts, battled with in 2020 and 2021.
Thereafter in 2022, the committee shifted its focus to 2016 audit report made available to it by the office of Auditor – General of the Federation.
In the report tabled before Senate for consideration and adoption last week Wednesday, the committee headed by Senator Mathew Urhoghide (PDP Edo South), said the Auditor – General of the Federation, issued queries to 92 MDAs.
Out of the 92 MDAs as explained by Senator Urhoghide, 80 submitted written responses and appeared before the committee to defend queries raised against them, eight submitted memoranda in response to the queries without appearing before the committee while four (4) failed to either appear or submit responses to the committee.
The four agencies that failed to forward written submissions to the committee on queries raised against them in the 2016 Audit report or appear at all, for any explanations are the Nigeria National Merit Award Secretariat, Federal Ministry of Health, National Orthopedic Hospital, Kano and Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria.
The Chairman of the committee, lamented to the Senate, that the heads of the four agencies refused to respond to series of letters of invitations or summons written to them on queries raised against them in the 2016 audit report by office of Auditor – General for the Federation.
Sustenance and vacation of queries
Being an institution saddled with investigations on queries raised against any MDAs on financial infractions in any fiscal year, the National Assembly through the Senate last week Wednesday, sustained queries raised against 37 of the MDAs and vacated those of 43 others.
Among the indicted MDAs, is the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), over alleged failure to provide details of crude Oil delivered to Warri, Kaduna Refineries worth about $376, 655,589 (N102.6 billion) in the audited year.
The query reads, “from the review and examination of domestic Crude Oil Lifting sales profile presented for audit verification, it was noted that several deliveries were stated to be jointly lifted by or delivered to Warri Refinery and Petrochemical company (WRPC) and Kaduna refinery and Petrochemical Company without necessary details or breakdown of what was delivered to respective companies.
“From the examination carried out a total oil lifting of 8,399,017; bbls with a total sales values of $376, 655,589 (N102.6 billion) was stated to have been lifted jointly by these two companies.
“The failure to properly separate these deliveries and charge directly to each company makes it difficult to reconcile and account for each lifting.”
The Senate therefore upheld the recommendation of its Committee asking the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mele Kyari to ensure specific details of crude delivered to the two refineries for audit.
Also among the indicted government agencies, is the Ministry of Information and Culture over three unrecovered vehicles.
The query as adopted by the Senate reads: “Audit Investigation revealed that Toyota Land Cruiser and two Toyota Hilux pick up Vans, observed to be missing, were in the custody of former Minister of the Ministry and a female staff in Sure-P office.
“In his response to the query, the Permanent Secretary explained that the Toyota Land Cruiser was an official vehicle of the Minister, High Chief Edem Duke and he took it away when he was leaving the office.
“The Ministry, the Permanent Secretary added, has written series of letters to the former Minister to return the vehicles but to no avail.”
Some of the 35 other indicted agencies are Office of Accountant General of the Federation, National Population Commission, National Agency for the Control of Aids (NACA), FCT Area Council Service Commission, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Justice, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) etc.
The Red Chamber, accordingly, resolved to submit the report of the indictment to the Office of Secretary to the Government of Federation for further action.
Lamentation on ineffectiveness of action
Before adopting and resolving to forward the report to the office of Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senators one after the other, in their contributions to debate on how the report should be handled, lamented that the National Assembly and the office of Auditor – General for the Federation, were just toothless bulldogs in the war against corruption.
Specifically, Senator Mathew Urhoghide said as long as office of Auditor – General for the Federation is underfunded and understaffed on yearly basis, audit of accounts of all MDAs would continue to be done in arrears and not with the required thoroughness.
“Similarly as long as the procedure for consideration or investigation of such report, requires the National Assembly to submit its findings and observations to the executive arm of government without power of facilitating prosecution of erring officials by relevant government agencies, the yearly exercise will not have desired effects in the war against corruption”, he said.
Though the Senate after the lamentations, consequently resolved to come up with a bill that will enforce the implementation of the outcome of the Auditor General report submitted to the National Assembly for consideration but the question is, will the 9th National Assembly succeed in getting such a bill, passed into law between now and its expiration date of June 10, 2023?
