2023 Budget: Buhari’s appointees, Ministers frustrating anti-corruption fight — Reps
…Lament poor 2023 budgetary allocation for office of Auditor General
…Summon Finance Minister, Acting Accountant General, DG Budget Office, Head of Service
…Give 7 days ultimatum to appear for explanation of AuGF’s proposed budget slashing to N5.112bn
…Say slashing targeted at undermining AuGF’s efforts to uncover corrupt MDAs
By Moses Adeniyi
Bewailing the poor results of the fight against corruption under the President Muhammadu Buhari led government, the House of Representatives, has openly attacked appointees of the President and lamented that they are frustrating the fight against corruption under the government.
Stating they were responsible for frustrating the processes of stemming the tide of corruption, the lower chamber said they were guilty of undermining the efforts to bring records to book and ensure accountability.
Buhari’s government though having had corruption as a lead pillar of its policy campaign thrust, has not according to international rating, achieved much on eliminating the scourge which has eaten deep on the fabrics of the Country.
According to the 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) reported by Transparency International ( TI), Nigeria is the 154 least corrupt nation out of 180 countries.
In the 2021 CPI, Nigeria’s ranking dropped five places in the 2021. Nigeria’s 154th ranking out of 180 countries in the 2021 CPI is a drop from 149 in the 2020 index, translating Nigeria in 2021 was the second most corrupt Country in West Africa after Guinea.
Recent efforts by the House of Representatives and the Senate to probe Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), have recorded set back, particularly with regards to hostile responses from affected MDAs which have mostly failed to provide explanations to gaps revealed by auditing exercises.
The Annual Reports on non-compliance, internal control, and weakness issues in MDAs of the Federal Government of Nigeria, released recently by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF) had continued to reveal, in tolls, the depth of discrepancies and defaults in the remittances of MDAs over the years.
The responses of Heads of revenue generating Agencies to explain gaps of unremitted funds have recorded hostilities as most have failed either to provide explanation upon invitation before both the lower and upper chambers, while others in many instances shunned invitation to answer to suspected cases of non-remittance uncovered by audit reports.
In lamentation, on Wednesday, the House of Representatives, accused the Ministers and other appointees of President Buhari of undermining the government’s efforts to tame corruption in the system.
The Chairman, Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the House, Hon. Wole Oke lashed the appointees and those he described as Buhari’s lieutenant during the 2023 budget defence session with the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation.
The lashing followed a disclosure by the Auditor General of the Federation, Andrew Onwudili that his office proposed a total budget of N11.151 billion for 2023, but the budget office approved only N5.112 billion in the Appropriation bill presented to the National Assembly.
According to him, the office had proposed a personnel cost of N3.041 billion as against the N2.349 billion contained in the budget; also a proposal of N5.59 billion for overhead costs as against the N2.113 billion; and a proposal of N2.52 billion for capital expenditure as against the N62.70 million contained in the budget estimates.
The figures having infuriated the Committee led to expression of resentment against authorities in the fiscal policies of the Country, accusing them of doing little with what he called supreme institution in the fight against corruption.
Stating that the office of the Auditor General was supreme in the fight against corruption, the House Chairman Chair, harped that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corruption Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) were ancillary.
The Committee, therefore, summoned the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed; the Acting Accountant General of the Federation, Sylva Okolieaboh and the Director General, Budget Office the Federation, Ben Nwabueze; and the Head of Service, Folashade Yemi-Esan, giving them seven days ultimatum to appear and explain why the budget of such a strategic office was slashed indiscriminately.
“It is very important at this point in time to state clearly observations. We want to observe that, the government of President Buhari was elected based on his promise, determination to tame corruption, to humble corruption in our country.
“And one of the institutions, as a matter of fact, the fundamental institution which the crafters of our constitution put in place under Section 85 is the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation. By Act of the Parliament, we have created ancillary institutions like ICPC, EFCC to work with the products, with the findings of the Office of the Auditor General’s office after due consideration by the Parliament.
“It is very unfortunate that we have noticed the concerted effort, determination to undermine the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation, to eradicate, to repeal illegally the supreme audit institution of this country.
“We have seen the determination of the lieutenants of Mr President, particularly the Minister of Finance, the DG Budget office to undermine Mr President in his determination to wage war against corruption on the land,” he said.
Recall the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts had announced recently its resolve to report some Ministries and head of Agencies to President Muhammadu Buhari for refusing to appear and answer to audit queries from the office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
The committee had also threatened to publish the report on the national dailies. The Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Busayo Oluwole Oke (PDP-Osun) in February, at the sitting of the Committee following the absence of an MDA and all its 17 subsidiaries at a session, said that the Committee was tired of summoning the concerned Agencies and their heads without compliance – a disposition that frustrated the Committee to direct its clerk to compile the list of the defaulting MDAs and forward same with a covering letter to the Chief of Staff to President Buhari, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and the Attorney General of the Federation and the Minister of Justice for judicial notice.
The 2019 Annual Report on non-compliance, internal control, and weakness issues in MDAs of the Federal Government of Nigeria for the year ended December 31, 2019, had revealed that the non-remittance of tax deductions by MDAs as well as the House of Representatives and Senate led to the loss of tax revenue of N5.8billion by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in 2019.
The defaulting MDAs as revealed by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation were the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; Federal College of Freshwater Fisheries Technology, New Bussa; Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria; Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority; Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited; Hussaini Adamu Federal Polytechnic, Jigawa State; Federal Medical Centre, Keffi, Nasarawa State’ Department of Petroleum Resources; National Assembly Service Commission; and Nigerian Correctional Service. It was disclosed in the report that between 2018 and 2019, the MDAs failed to either remit one per cent stamp duty, value added tax, withholding tax or Pay As You Earn tax deducted from awarded contracts, thereby contravening sections of the Financial Regulations and Treasury Circular issued on December 29, 2015.
According to the report, Paragraph 234(I) of the Financial Regulations states that “it is mandatory for accounting officers to ensure full compliance with the dual roles of making provision for the Value Added Tax and withholding tax due on supply and services contract and actual remittance of same.” The report also quoted Paragraph 235 as saying, “Deduction of VAT, WHT, and PAYE shall be remitted to Federal Inland Revenue Service at the same time the payee who is the subject of deduction is paid.” According to the report, the Treasury circular Ref No. TRY/A12&B12/2015 and OAGF/CAD/VOL.II/390 dated December 29, 2015 states that “1% Stamp Duty chargeable on contract awards and the remittance be made to the relevant tax authority (Federal Inland Revenue Service).”
“The audit observed that the sum of N5,828,621,715.06 was the amount of taxes not remitted by 12 Ministries, Departments and Agencies. The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority has the highest amount of N2,984,887,250.00 while Federal College of Freshwater Fisheries Technology, New Bussa has the least amount of N1,021,011.13,” the report had given further breakdown.
