ICPC’s reports of corrupt practice by the MDAs

 “The high cost of governance and rising personnel budget in Nigeria is as a result of illegal recruitment, illegal and unilateral increase in wages and remuneration by some MDAs, indiscriminate local and international travels, unreasonable demands by some political appointee board members of MDAs without regard for extant circulars on cost management; procurement fraud, budget padding, etc,”

– ICPC Chairman, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye on November 30, 2021.

In case you do not know, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission is one of the foremost anti-corruption agencies in Nigeria. Information garnered from its website says that the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000 (Act 2000) brought a fresh and decisive perspective to the fight against corruption in the form of a holistic approach encompassing enforcement, prevention and educational measures. The Act brings under its purview all Nigerians, in the private and public sectors and even those public officers with constitutional immunity.

ICPC was inaugurated on September 29, 2000 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. In the order set out in Section 6 of the Act, the first duty of the Commission is to receive complaints, investigate and prosecute offenders. Other duties include reviewing and modifying the systems and procedures of public bodies as well as education of the public and fostering their support in combating corruption.

In 2019, under the current leadership of an erudite Professor of Law and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Bolaji Owasanoye, ICPC held the inaugural National Summit on Diminishing Corruption in the Public Sector and presentation of integrity awards, which it organised in collaboration with the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

At that time, ICPC said it had uncovered gross abuse of personnel budget and inflation as well as padding of nominal role by some Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies amounting to N18.62 billion. He said the discovery of the scam followed the launching of the Commission’s System Study and Review of MDA Practices involving over 300 MDAs.

ICPC boss in 2019 said that the culprit MDAs are mostly academic and health institutions. For example, preliminary findings then showed the following: “University of Benin Teaching Hospital N1.1bn; Federal Medical Centre, Bayelsa N915m; Nnamdi Azikwe University N907m; University of Jos N896m; University College Hospital Ibadan N701m; Usman Dan Fodio University N636m and University of Ibadan N558m. Other findings of ICPC as at then include failure of some MDAs to remit tax and divert pension and NHIS deductions for unrelated payments thus aggravating the sufferings of other Nigerians. Some MDAs reportedly abused the e-payment policy of government thus making payments through staff accounts instead of to actual beneficiaries. Example was cited of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources where N3.3bn was paid out in about a month through the accounts of staff. ICPC said it arrested 59 directors of the ministry for investigation.

Fast-forward to 2021.  On Tuesday, November 30, 2021, ICPC Chairman at the 3rd National Summit on Diminishing Corruption in the Public Service and Presentation of Public Service Integrity Award made another startling revelation when he said that the Commission has uncovered gross abuse of personnel budget as well as duplication of projects by some federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies amounting to over N20.138bn. The duplication and padding occurred in the implementation of the 2021 budget and involved about 257 projects. The anti-graft agency said it is investigating the Ministry of Labour and the University College Hospital Ibadan as well as corrupt staff members in other MDAs suspected of massive illegal recruitment.

Owasanoye said ICPC, through its project tracking, found out that skyrocketing personnel in many MDAs was attributable to massive budgetary scams, including illegal recruitment, unilateral increase in wages, indiscriminate travels, among others. Talking about the modus operandi of some of the rogue elements in the civil service, the ICPC boss said the “malfeasance” the anti-graft agency uncovered in the recruitment process by some MDAs including the labour ministry is perpetrated with the connivance of some staff members of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System. He was quoted as saying that “At another level, a syndicate of corrupt individuals within the service corruptly employ unsuspecting Nigerians, issue them fake letters of employment, fraudulently enrolling them on IPPIS and post them to equally unsuspecting MDAs to commence work. ICPC is prosecuting one of the leaders of the syndicate from whose custody we retrieved several fake letters of recommendation purportedly signed by Chief of Staff to the President, Hon Ministers, Federal Civil Service Commission and other high ranking Nigerians.”

ICPC further revealed that “The third phase of ICPC’s projects tracking covered 1,083 projects across the entire country with the exception of Borno and Zamfara states due to security challenges. The exercise verified the implementation of executive and zip projects of legislators. The anti-corruption agency said it has so far initiated enforcement actions against 67 contractors and forced them back to the site and ensured completion of 966 projects worth N310bn some of which were hitherto abandoned. Owasanoye said the findings of his commission indicate that the same malady of corruption afflicts executive as well as zip projects thus undermining government projections, escalating the cost of governance and denying Nigeria value for money.

He was quoted as saying that: “These maladies include poor needs assessment that disconnects projects from beneficiaries; false certification of uncompleted contracts as completed, deliberate underperformance of contracts incessant criminal diversion and conversion of public property by civil servants, to name just a few.” The ICPC boss said some MDAs had mini-civil wars going on between their boards and managements and sometimes within the board.

“These squabbles revolve around abuse of power prohibited by ICPC Act and unreasonable demands by some Board members for privileges contrary to extant circulars and laws and government’s resolve to minimise the cost of governance.”

He added, “ICPC’s Ethics Compliance Scorecard of MDAs report for 2021 shows that only 34.6 per cent of the 360 MDAs assessed scored above average in Management Culture and Structure. This poor finding is not unrelated to unstable boards unable to effectively oversight the institutions.”

Am I shocked by these startling revelations? No. Many compatriots know that corruption is very endemic in Nigeria, both in public and private sectors. What is being revealed by anti-corruption agencies like ICPC are the strategies and methods used by the perpetrators of the economic and financial crimes. Imagine, these undesirable elements have found a way to even circumvent the IPPIS meant to help weed out ghost workers! It is important to note that ICPC reports are just on less than half of the Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies which I learnt stands at about 900. Imagine, just imagine, if there was a systematic review of the entire MDAs!

The 2022 appropriation bill is about to be passed by the National Assembly and only God knows the enormity of the padding that will be discovered in that one too. The question is, what’s the whole essence of budget defence and oversight of MDAs being carried out by the committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives? Little wonder many compatriots believe the NASS work in cahoots with the MDAs to defraud the country. After all, many of them have been identified as being contractors to many of the MDAs as the forensic audit of the Niger Delta Development Commission allegedly revealed. By the way, when will the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, publish the NDDC forensic audit for public consumption?

In a recent interview, I opined that part of the tools we can use to fight corruption is that of naming and shaming people who indulge in corrupt practices. Excommunicating corrupt persons from churches and mosques, denying them participation in the holy communion, stripping them of national honours and awards, withdrawing their honorary doctorate degrees and chieftaincy titles will help put pressure on people to always do the right thing including being incorruptible. I know some people will laugh me to scorn due to our low moral rectitude and hero-worshipping of money but then, it’s worth being given a try.