‘Soft landing’ for treasury looters as FG targets N350bn recovery

Reprieve is coming the way of treasury looters who voluntarily return those monies to the nation’s coffers as the Federal Government is now considering some form of ‘soft landing’ for them, BusinessDay has learnt.

Presidential Spokesman, Femi Adesina, confirmed to BusinessDay that those who make deliberate efforts to return monies would have some form of concession, although he could not confirm what Buhari is specifically planning for this set of treasury looters.

“Ordinarily, if one voluntarily refunds the money, it is not the same thing as when he is caught. So it is expected that the one who returns voluntarily would have some soft landing, but I am not sure what it would be,” Adesina said.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who is bent on fighting huge corruption in the system and recovering funds stolen by former government officials, especially in the previous administration, hopes his government could recover about

N468.58 billion between 2016 and 2017 to help the country shore up already dwindled revenue occasioned by soft oil prices.

The President had last Friday, indicated that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will publish the names of officials of the last administration who stole public funds and the amount surrendered to the coffers of the Federal Government.

“A good number of people who abused their positions are voluntarily returning the illicit funds”. The list of the looters, he said would be made public in due course, so as not to jeopardise the possibility of bigger recoveries,” the President had said.

Buhari has planned a N6.04 trillion expansionist budget for 2016,– the largest so far seen in the country, to help boost the ailing economy – but tightening income on account of low oil revenues, remains a huge challenge and could push deficits to as high as N2.22 trillion as indicated in the 3-year Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) already being discussed at the National Assembly.

As seen in the MTEF, Buhari hopes to recover about N350.33 billion misappropriated state monies just in 2016 to enable government partly fund the huge N6.04 trillion proposed budgetary spending and especially fulfil his promise of paying at least N5, 000 to every unemployed graduate in the country. N500 billion has been budgeted for that purpose.

The President also projects that his government could recover an additional N118.20 billion in 2017, bringing expected recoveries for 2016 and 2017 to about N468.58 billion.

President Buhari indicated in the MTEF expected to be approved by the law makers before Friday that his government hopes to recover up to N137.90 billion from Strategic Alliance Contracts. 

There is also indication that the Federal Government also plans to recover some N162 .43 billion from those looted funds from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The MTEF also contains the Federal Government’s quest to recover N50 billion of ‘Other Misappropriated Funds’ as well as plans to adopt a three-pronged approach in the management of public resources by improving on revenue generation and collection as well as quality spending in a manner that will enhance transparency, accountability and result in service delivery.

Buhari has severally vowed to recover monies looted by past administrations, as seen in high profile cases of corruption, including the $2.1 billion arms deal money involving Sambo Dasuki, former National Security Adviser, and some other highly placed Nigerians.

His ruling party had in August, listed alleged looted funds from the treasury to include : “N3.8 trillion out of the N8.1 trillion  earned from crude oil (2012-2015) withheld by NNPC; $2.1 billion from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) unaccounted for; Department of Petroleum Resources’ unremitted N109.7 billion royalty from oil firms; $6 billion allegedly looted by some ministers of the last administration.

“160 billion barrels of crude worth $13.9 billion lost between 2009 and 2012; $15 million from botched arms deal yet to be returned to Nigeria; $13 billion in NLNG dividends mostly unaccounted for N30 billion rice waiver​; as well as N183 billion unaccounted for at the NDDC.

ONYINYE NWACHUKWU & ELIZABETH ARCHIBONG