The recent exposure of existent of a fake Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council and Presidential Economic Advisory Council, allegedly run by Adeniyi Adeyemi, has exposed weakness of federal government and the National Assembly oversight responsibilities, according to public sector analysts
The federal government recently accused Adeyemi, of allegedly parading himself as the Director-General of the non-existent agency, despite the allocation of about N1.4 billion budgetary allocation, deployment of staff from the office of the Accountant General of the Federation OAGF.
Sam Amadi, former chairman of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, speaking with BusinessDay, in Abuja, noted that insiders connivance in the government establishment must have created opportunities for the ongoing problem
According to him, “I was in government and I know how the budget process work.
“For them to include a budetary provision for an organisation that the government says does not exist, there must be a fraudulent insider , in the Presidency.
“This points significantly to a case of compromise, massive illegality”
Speaking futher, on the implications for governance, Amadi, noted that “it has exposed the weakness of the oversight responsibilities of the National Assembly, especially in the budget process
“It shows that Adeniyi has a contact in the government, otherwise, how did the person penetrated the federal government. It is not just a mere coincidence.”
Beyond the pending court case, Amadi called for complete overhaul of the budget machinery and prosecution of those found culpable.
Ayo Teriba, the CEO of Economics Associate, however, called on Nigerians to allow the law enforcement agencies take over the matter.
According to him, “Since the Presidency has already exposed the fraud, we should allow the law enforcement agencies to do their job and handle the rest of the matter.
“This is a case of fraud. Let the Police and other relevant agencies handle it from here” he said.
Vahyala Kwaga, country director, BudgIT, while also speaking to BusinessDay, confirmed that the scandal is a clear confirmation of what the civil societies, analysts and researchers have been alluding to for years that the federal budget process is not as transparent as it should, adding that “it has limited accountability than it should have.”
Kwaga emphasised that there should be some form of accountability, and oversight from MDAs themselves because the MDAs are meant to report to their mother ministries
“So in the Ministry of Health you have several, you know Sub-ministries or agencies or departments under them that would then be collated into one whole Ministry of Health or Ministry of Education or Ministry of Defense as the case may be.
“So there should be levels of oversight from the MDA point to the Budget Office point to the to the Federal Executive Council point to the National Assembly point to the Presidency point after it has been reviewed by the National Assembly and sent to the president for approval.
“This is a story that we were told involved the payment of salaries and the office allegedly hired over 300 staff that went to an office and were collecting salaries so it is very clear that this was done with the Complicit this was done complicity with the accountant general the Federation with the Budget Office of the Federation With the presidency with the Ministry of Finance and with the office of the Office of the head of civil service of the Federation all of these bodies should be implicated and should be investigated.
“There are countless stories of persons having to pay to be hired into the civil service, of persons having to pay to be appointed and this is Symptomatic. This is just a symptom of our broader problem of a lack of values a Lack of the understanding of the role of the public service a lack of an understanding of the ultimate aims of the public service because If you sampled if you randomly sample Nigerians and you ask them how corrupt do you think the public services? You probably get an overwhelming number of people who make that claim,” he said.
“So it’s not surprising to hear such a Scandal what is even more surprising is the fact that it even came out, You know, what’s more surprising is that we heard about it.
He decried that oftentimes the very agencies that are mandated to investigate these corrupt acts are loyal to the government, who shield them from the very investigation that they should be carried out.
“For example in the United States the FBI can arrest the President of the United States, but the DSS doesn’t have that power. In Nigeria the National Assembly that should call for an investigation is not only In bed with the executive, but they do not possess the levers of control to Initiate an investigation.
“The DSS, the ICPC the EFCC the police they all serve at the pleasure of the president So, how do you even expect even if they wanted to, how could the National Assembly possibly investigate the executive when all of these security agencies answer to the president. So there are many layers to this problem that are not just about political parties, but are about the way our our institutions are designed,” he added.
Speaking further, Kwaga said that the Tinubu-led administration has very little legitimacy, making citizens suspicious that key political offices knew about this scandal but simply chose not to speak about it because they just wanted to carry on business as usual.
“The fact that this scandal came out is actually surprising,” he added.
“It is more likely that there are dozens if not hundreds of more situations like this going on. Secondly, the right thing that should have happened should have been for the chief of staff to have been suspended because for his name to have even arisen in this scandal should have been investigated by a third party not by the presidency.
“So it is a farce for the presidency to have claimed that they have investigated the chief of staff and found him to be clean.
“No, you do not get to make that a pronouncement, an independent panel or committee of inquiry should have been constituted to carry out that investigation, thirdly I will say that this is symptomatic of our broader Nigerian public service culture that leans more towards opacity more towards grafts less or moves away from transparency away from accountability and Clearly shows that the entire institutional environment needs an overhaul,” Kwaga added.
A top official of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) who also spoke on condition of anonimyty, however, told BusinessDay that the Commission is yet to officially receive the matter for investigation.
Only recently, the International Monetary Fund revealed that Nigeria left approximately two per cent of its Gross Domestic Product in public spending unrecorded within recent official budgets, obscuring the true extent of the nation’s actual financing needs.
Christian Ebuka, the IMF representative in Nigeria, who disclosed this at an interactive session with some business executives revealed this massive statistical discrepancy effectively hides the true size of the country’s fiscal deficit relative to its aggressive debt accumulation.
He had noted that the “lack of full reporting can also complicate coordination between fiscal and monetary policy, as policymakers may not have a clear picture of the true deficit,”
Ebuka described Improvement in transparency as “critical,” adding that “off-budget spending raises major concerns about procurement processes and oversight”
Adeniyi has continued however to deny any wrongdoing, insisting that his appointment was sanctioned by Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu
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