Reps Summon Buhari’s Appointees, Says Minister, Others Undermining Anti-corruption War

The House of Representatives has accused Ministers and other appointees of President Muhammadu Buhari of undermining the federal government’s efforts to fight corruption in the country.

Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, PAC, Wole Oke, who gave the reprimand during the 2023 budget defence with the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation particularly slammed the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed; Budget Office of the Federation and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.

Naija News reports that Oke was reacting to the disclosure by the Auditor-General of the Federation, Andrew Onwudili, that his office proposed a total budget of N11.151 billion for 2023 which the Budget Office slashed to N5.112 billion.

Onwudili had stated that the office had proposed a personnel cost of N3.041 billion against the N2.349 billion contained in the budget.

He said also that the N5.59 billion proposed for overhead costs was slashed to N2.113 billion by the Budget Office, while the N2.52 billion proposal for capital expenditure was again reduced to N62.70 million.

Angered by the figures, the Committee Chairman accused officials of the budget office and the Finance Minister of trying to stall the fight against corruption in the country.

He noted that the office of the Auditor-General was supreme in the fight against corruption, stressing that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the Independent Corruption Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, were merely ancillary.

The committee chairman, therefore, summoned the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed; Acting Accountant General of the Federation, Sylva Okolieaboh, Director-General, Budget Office of 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 toyed with.

He said: “It is very important at this point in time to state clearly our observations. We want to observe that the government of President Buhari was elected based on his promise, and determination to tame corruption in our country.

“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 the Act of the parliament, we have created ancillary institutions such as ICPC, and EFCC to work with the findings of the Office of the Auditor-General after due consideration by the Parliament.

“It is very unfortunate that we have noticed the concerted effort and determination to undermine the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation to eradicate, 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 D-G, Budget Office to undermine Mr. President in his determination to wage war against corruption on the land.

“Otherwise, why would you allocate several billion to ancillary institutions and you are giving N62 million to the office of the Auditor General of the Federation to fund Capital? They have to go cap in hand to pay workers?

‘’They are understaffed, they are undermined? They cannot conduct a performance audit. As we speak, this office is yet to lay its reports in respect of the 2022 and 2021 financial years.

“We are saying we are determined to wage war against corruption. We cannot see how we intend to achieve the objectives, based on which budget is formulated, speaking to law, facts and issues. ‘

‘The Procurement Act, Section 2021 (18) taking together, is the bedrock for budget formulation. In Sub-Section 18, an agency of government is expected to conduct a needs assessment, conduct a market survey, arrive at your needs, and ensure they are embedded in the annual budget.

“If the Auditor-General of the Federation has conducted a needs assessment in terms of personnel, in the areas of working tools and have offices in all the 36 states and the FCT and they came to the conclusion about what they need and submit same to the Budget Office, and the Budget Office violated that same principle, Procurement Act and now reduced the capital requirements of this agency to N62 million, reduced their overhead by N3 billion and gave the agencies of government that are doing virtually nothing billions of naira, there is no other way to tell Mr. President that his lieutenants are working against him.

“Or, are they telling Nigerians, that even the objectives laid by Mr. President are determined to undermine this supreme audit institution? Otherwise, Mr. President would have assented to the bill presented to him, and this would have given the Auditor General’s office its rightful place in our country.

“We reject this budget. This budget cannot work. The Accountant-General of the Federation, the minister of finance are hereby summoned to appear before this committee to tell Nigerians why this is so.

‘’The minister for finance, the DG Budget, and the Accountant General of the Federation, the three of them should cause appearance before this committee and tell Nigerians why they are undermining the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation. Why the office has not been staffed? Why they are not being given the tools required to work, to weed off corruption in the land?”