Moshood Isah
Some five months ago, a survey conducted by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Polls (NOIPolls) suggested that the police, ministries, departments and agencies are the most corrupt in the country. Nearly one fourth of the poll participants blamed weakness of public institutions as the main cause of high corruption levels in Nigeria, while approximately every fifth of all Nigerians who have participated in public opinion survey consider poverty as one of the main causes fuelling corruption. The conclusion made by NOIPolls was that that to fight corruption in Nigeria, it is highly needed to “gradually alter the general acceptance of corruption as a norm in the society, alongside the strengthening of government institutions, especially anticorruption agencies”.
Vice President Prof Yemi Osinbajo also recently reiterated government’s determination to fight corruption to a halt. While expressing the view that it was possible to achieve the reform of the nation’s public institutions against any known cynicisms or challenges, Osinbajo said: ‘’I think that an important message which we have taken from this discussion, is that it is entirely possible to reform our public institutions, to turn our country around. I perfectly have no doubt in my mind about that”. Some of the on-going specific initiatives outlined by Osinbajo include the Treasury Single Account (TSA), Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), adoption of zero-based budgeting, bottom-up economic planning model, the Anti-Corruption Committee and capacity building for public servants.
The TSA is a unified structure of government bank accounts that gives a consolidated view of government cash resources whereby all funds belonging to the federal government are domiciled in one account with the central bank, with payments and collections into the account done via electronic means. This directive applies to fully funded organs of government like ministries, departments, agencies and foreign missions, as well as the partially funded ones, like teaching hospitals, medical centres, federal tertiary institutions, etc. Agencies like the Central Bank of Nigeria, Security and Exchange Commission, Corporate Affairs Commission, Nigerian Ports Authority, National Communication Commission, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Nigerian Customs Service, Department of Petroleum Resources are also affected. For any agency that is fully or partially self-funding, sub-accounts linked to TSA are to be maintained at CBN and the accounting system will be configured to allow them access to funds based on their approved budgetary provisions.
Disturbing reports of massive corruption and non-remittance of revenue in various ministries, department and agencies (MDAs) have become sources of worry to the government. For example, an investigation by the House of Representatives on unremitted revenue last year said that 60 percent revenue generating agencies of the Federal Government failed to remit over N9.4tn to the coffers of the government between 2009 and 2012. The Fiscal Responsibility Commission have also lamented how MDAs use many illegal ways to hide and divert billions of naira they generate including using “creative accounting practice”. The commission said its investigation showed that the financial statements submitted by some of the agencies to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, (OAGF), and Minister of Finance/Budget Office of the Federation were often different from the ones submitted to it. While the statements submitted to the OAGF and the Minister/Budget Office would show the agencies as either profitable or breaking even, those sent to the Fiscal Responsibility Commission would show that they were operating at a loss. In one of its editions, Economic Confidential also revealed how these bodies fleece government of trillions.
One of such agencies is the Securities and Exchange Commission which has been culpable many times for either refusal to submit its audited final statements or provide evidence of its establishment of a General Reserve Fund, and its payment of 80 per cent of its operational surplus to the government as required by law. The capital market regulator alongside NNPC, the multibillion dollar government oil firm, have consistently refused to make their books open to the commission for scrutiny despite several requests as mandated by law.
This apparently triggered the order directing, all government agencies to close their revenue collection account domiciled in commercial banks. Subsequently, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered each and every MDA to start paying into a Treasury Single Account (TSA) for all government revenues, incomes and other receipts. According to the directive, the measure was specifically to promote transparency and facilitate compliance with sections 80 and 162 of the 1999 Constitution. The statement by Senior Special assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity also demanded that, all receipts due to the Federal Government or any of its agencies must be paid into TSA or designated accounts maintained and operated in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), except otherwise expressly approved.
Despite the 15th September 2015 deadline given by the government for the fulfillment of the TSA, it was reported that about 300 agencies of the Federal Government were yet to comply with the directive. Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) also warned that commercial banks that failed to comply with the September 15 deadline will face severe sanctions. The Director, Banking Supervision, Mrs. Tokunbo Martins gave the warning in a letter addressed to all banks. A copy of the letter was posted on the bank’s website. According to the Accountant General of the Federation, Alhaji Ahmed Idris, about 600 out of the over 900 government MDAs were able to comply with the TSA directive, the number of accounts so far transferred is not yet known.
In line with its threat to sanction commercial banks that failed to comply with the federal government’s directive on the remittance of government revenue to the treasury single account (TSA), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has fined First Bank of Nigeria Limited (FirstBank) and United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc a combined sum of N4.819 billion. While the CBN imposed a penalty of N1,877,409,905.12 on FirstBank, UBA was fined N2,942,189,651.45 for its failure to comply with the federal government’s policy.
Similarly, the Federal Government has commenced investigations into the activities of some ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), including the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), who collect revenues in dollars only to remit same in naira into government coffers. CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele told the National Economic Council (NEC) during a recent monthly meeting chaired by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, at the Presidential Villa of the sharp practices by the revenue generating agencies, saying that the practice was not limited to those mentioned. He said, “A brief report on the Federal Government agencies remitting dollar revenues in naira into the federation account was also given by the CBN governor. He said investigations were on-going. Such agencies include but not limited to NNPC, NIMASA and NPA.”
Just as these parastatals were being investigated, government investigators have decided to use the sledge-hammer on defaulting agencies starting with the Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC). CBN froze all bank accounts operated by INEC following the commission’s failure to comply with the TSA directive. Informed sources at the commission tried tom justify the failure to comply by citing peculiar activities of the body. It was further gathered that the decision of the government to freeze all accounts operated by INEC thrown the body into a serious dilemma because it was not able to even pay salaries of workers. Furthermore, agencies like NIMASA, CBN, DPR, FIRS, SEC, NCS, OAGF, amongst others, took turns to appear before the probe panel to present their financial activities. It is expected that the Federal Government will continue to use its sledge-hammer on any agency found wanting in any form of economic inconsistency of the other.