The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences
Commission (ICPC) has accused some ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs)
of budget manipulation.
Bolaji Owasanoye, chairman of ICPC, said this on Wednesday
at an interactive forum organised by the budget office and ICPC.
Owasanoye said the mismanagement of public finance and
assets by MDAs is the reason for Nigeria’s economic fragility.
He said the ICPC commenced a system study and review (SSR)
which showed how most MDAs — particularly health and educational institutions —
mismanaged public funds meant for major infrastructure and development
projects.
“The failure of integrity on the part of these critical
watchdogs of public finance is what accounts for the under development of
Nigeria, the absence of infrastructure, the fragility of the economy and the
near collapse of the nation state,” he said.
“Our findings showed that there was budget manipulation by
most MDAs which resulted in MDAs receiving both appropriation and releases
beyond their actual needs.”
Owosanoye said in 2019, the commission reviewed 208 MDAs and
discovered N31.8 billion personnel cost surpluses for 2017 and 2018;
misapplication of N19.8 billion and N9.2 billion from personnel cost and
capital fund respectively.
The commission also said that N42 billion unspent surplus
allocations for personnel cost for 2019 alone was blocked from possible abuse
and N147 billion in 2020, which came mostly from health and some educational
institutions.
He said the commission’s SSR in 2020 discovered that there
was widespread misuse of personnel cost allocation on non-personnel related
expenditure, especially on outsourced services worth N4.5 billion; and unspent
excess balances worth N4.86 billion, among 51 health institutions investigated.
On federal unity schools, Owosanoye said: “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.”
He said to avert mismanagement of public finances and
assets, “unspent balances should be blocked and restrained/reversed immediately
salaries are paid to prevent misuse.
“Prevent inflation of nominal rolls by MDAs for the 2021
Budget and beyond to eliminate surplus allocation and releases, and other
resultant infractions.
“MDAs should be advised to issue financial reports on time
to enable completion of annual audit and publishing of result on time.
Sanctions should be introduced for inordinate delays.
“Government should avoid late releases of budget allocation,
especially at the end of the year as the practice raises opportunity for
frenzied expenditure, circumvention of procedure, fraud and corruption”.
Owosanoye further said the high level of overhead budget
allocations and corruption in MDAs is a threat to Nigeria, adding that it has
already negatively impacted stability and development.
“We are at a turning point with a global pandemic whose end
is uncertain, reduced public revenue but escalating citizen expectation, youth
restiveness, insecurity and lack of or decaying critical infrastructure,” he
said.
“In all of this government is striving to put money in the
right place for the benefit of the people. The least we can do is to ensure
that the expectations of the government and the people are met and we get value
for money.
“ICPC is already investigating and prosecuting a number of
egregious cases and we will escalate that position.”
He said ICPC has reached the point where it will prosecute
officers mismanaging public resources so as to instill zero tolerance for
corruption.
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