The Senate Public Accounts Committee has declared that its
investigations so far revealed that
civil servants are more corrupt than the political class.
The Chairman of SPAC, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, stated this
in an exclusive interview with our correspondent in Abuja.
The Senate panel, which is the only standing committee of
the red chamber recognised by the Nigerian constitution, is currently
scrutinising the report of the Auditor General of the Federation from 2015 to
2018.
The AuGF report was based on the audit carried out on the accounts of federal ministries, departments and agencies.
Urhoghide lamented that findings by his panel so far
revealed that the worst form of corruption, which he tagged, “institutional
corruption,” was taking place in the civil service.
He said, “Let me say this, we are in a clime where
accusations are quick to be made, where
people are quick to to condemn,
particularly against the political class.
“Everybody believes that any evil that happens in Nigeria is
perpetrated by the politicians or the political class but we keep telling them
that all the political parties put together, in terms of membership, are not up to 10 per cent of the Nigerian
population. So, we do not form the greater majority of our population as a
country.
“Findings by our committee have revealed that the public
wealth stolen from the system were not stolen by politicians.
“We have uncovered billions of naira stolen from the
accounts of the MDAs. How many politicians have that kind of money?
“We have been summoning accounting officers, who are civil
servants, to account for the stolen
funds. We are not summoning ministers. There is no way a minister could
misappropriate public funds without the active connivance of the accounting
officers.
“The permanent secretaries, directors general and executive
secretaries of the MDAs are the accounting officers
“We have uncovered billions of monies spent without due
regard to extant Act and regulations. We are not at war with anybody but
Nigerians too, must know that the greatest misuse of public funds are
perpetrated by people from the civil service.
“That’s the truth and no one can controvert that. It is
possible that today, in the presidency, the man who symbolises the office, the
President would be blamed whereas those under him were the ones perpetrating
fraud.”
He expressed confidence that, “the President, who won his
election on the mantra of anti-corruption, will approve the implementation of
our report when it is passed on to him by the National Assembly.”
He said SPAC had been able to establish a clear case of
“institutional corruption being perpetrated by the MDAs.”
He said the erring agencies refused to either pay required
taxes to government or were engaged in misappropriation of funds approved for
them by the National Assembly.
He said, “Those agencies, particularly those that has to do
with non-payment of taxes are usually indicted by the Office of the Auditor
General when they erred.
“They ought to have collected five per cent withholding tax and 7.5 per
cent Value Added Tax In terms of
consultancy, they are expected to collect 10 per cent withholding tax.
“Government is expecting revenue from capital expenditure in
terms of withholding taxes and value added tax.
“On any Federal Government capital expenditure now, we are
expecting that a minimum of 12.5 per cent will return to government coffers. It
is a way of ensuring that government gets money back when it is spending.
“Agencies that erred were told to go and reconcile their
accounts with the Federal Inland Revenue Service or pay to the Consolidated
Revenue Fund.”
The SPAC Chairman said the panel had come up with a new
innovation which would ensure that civil servants who committed the infraction
were made to refund money stolen.
He said, “We also have cases of misuse of public funds and
we directed those involved to go and pay.
“We have decided to personalise the verdict against the
individual head of an agency who stole public fund when he or she was in office
and the Chief accounting officer
“Any public officer who stole public funds some 10 years
ago, would be contacted and made to give account, they risked being jailed if they failed to
refund the money they stole while in office. There must be consequences or
repercussions for certain misdeeds.
“Somebody who stole N10m about years ago would have invested
it and he would be richer and financially comfortable to pay now.”
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