Saturday’s statement from the Accountant General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, only confirmed the illegality of the humanitarian affairs minister, Betta Edu’s payment of government N585.2 million into a civil servant’s private bank account, but has not exonerated Mrs Madein of wrongdoing.
A leaked memo revealed that Mrs Edu, in December, requested Mrs Madein, the accountant general of the federation, to transfer N585.2 million from the National Social Investment office account to the UBA account of Bridget Oniyelu, the accountant of a federal government poverty intervention project called Grants for Vulnerable Groups.
The project is under Mrs Edu’s ministry.
As previously reported by PREMIUM TIMES, the transfer contravenes various sections of Nigeria’s Financial Regulations 2009 meant to prevent fraud and other forms of corruption in government business.
Mrs Madein admitted that her office had received Mrs Edu’s request for a transfer of the N585.2 million to Ms Oniyelu’s private account, but that she (Madein) refused to honour it.
“The Ministry was advised on the appropriate steps to take in making such payments in line with the established payment procedure,” she said. “No bulk payment is supposed to be made to an individual’s account in the name of the Project Accountant.”
Mrs Madein said payments like the N585.2 million which Mrs Edu wanted to be transferred “are usually processed by the affected ministries as self-accounting entities.”
“She added that such payment should be sent to the beneficiaries through their verified bank accounts,” the statement stated.
Questions for the accountant general
With the public outrage trailing Mrs Edu’s memo, with many calling on President Bola Tinubu to suspend the humanitarian affairs minister from office, it is not enough for Mrs Madein to declare Mrs Edu’s action illegal and distance her office from the scandal — Mrs Madein has to inform Nigerians about the specific steps she took to stop the illegal transfer.
Part II, Section 107 (b) of Nigeria’s Financial Regulations 2009 empowers Mrs Madein, as the accountant general of the federation, to “supervise the accounts of federal ministries, extra-ministerial offices and other arms of government”.
The same section of the law empowers her to “conduct a routine and in-depth inspection of the books of accounts of federal ministries, extra-ministerial offices and other arms of government to ensure compliance with rules, regulations and policy decisions of the federal government”.
Mrs Madein, under the same law, is empowered to not only provide financial guidelines to ministries but to investigate cases of fraud.
Mrs Edu’s request to Mrs Madein that N585.2 million should be paid into a private account contravened Chapter Seven, Section 713 of Nigeria’s Financial Regulations 2009 which states that “Personal money shall in no circumstances be paid into a government bank account, nor shall any public money be paid into a private account.”
The section, in addition, says, “Any officer who pays public money into a private account is deemed to have done so with fraudulent intention.”
It is very clear that the intent of the law here is to prevent fraud in government business. Did Mrs Madein flag this transaction as being suspicious? Did she report it to the presidency?
It is clear that Mrs Edu’s humanitarian affairs ministry went ahead to pay the N585.2 million into Ms Oniyelu’s private account, against Mrs Madein’s advice, and in violation of Nigeria’s law.
Mrs Edu’s action raises a fundamental question: What specific steps did Mrs Madein, as the accountant general of the federation, take to stop the minister from carrying on with the illegal transfer?
Other illegal transfers?
Mrs Edu, through a statement from her media aide, Rasheed Zubair, on Friday, said the payment of the N585.2 million into a private account is legal in the country’s civil service.
“It is legal in civil service for a staff, the project accountant, to be paid and use the same funds legally and retire same with all receipts and evidence after the project or programme is completed,” the statement stated.
The minister’s comment here suggests that it has been the practice, at least in her ministry, for government funds to be transferred into private account(s).
Mrs Madein’s office is empowered by law to investigate the extent of the illegal practice, sanitise the practice, and restore the confidence of Nigerians in the government accounting system.
PREMIUM TIMES
