SERAP has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to investigate the alleged missing N106 billion public funds from 149 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as revealed and documented in the 2018 annual audited report by the Auditor-General of the Federation.
SERAP asked the President to direct the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN, and appropriate anti-corruption agencies to investigate allegations.
According to SERAP, “Anyone suspected to be responsible should face prosecution as appropriate, if there is sufficient admissible evidence, and any missing public funds should be fully recovered.
“We also urge him to direct to create a system of public announcements to name & shame the indicted 149 MDAs, including those that reportedly failed to remit over N55bn of their revenue, awarded contracts of over N18bn for services not rendered and spent over N23bn without any supporting documents.”
SERAP maintained that the reported missing public funds “reflect the failure of the indicted MDAs to ensure strict compliance with transparency and accountability rules and regulations, and the failure of leadership of the MDAs to foster institutions that uphold the rule of law and human rights.
“Recovering the alleged missing public funds would reduce the pressure on Nigerian Government to borrow more money to fund the budget, enable the authorities to meet the country’s human rights obligation to progressively realize Nigerians’ rights to quality health care and education.
Further, it said: “We urge President Buhari to ask Mrs Ahmed & Mr Ahmed Idris, the Accountant-General of the Federation to explain why they allegedly failed to ensure strict compliance with relevant legislation, rules & regulations across all MDAs, despite the warning & recommendations by the Auditor-General
“We also urge President to direct Mrs Ahmed to publish full details of yearly budgets of all MDAs, & issue regular updates that accurately detail their expenditures, including by making any such information easily accessible in a form that can be understood by the public.”
SERAP also cited that the Auditor-General stated that the alleged infractions by the 149 MDAs could have been prevented if Finance Ministry, and the Accountant General of the Federation had heeded his warning to ensure strict compliance with relevant legislation, rules and regulations across all MDAs.
“There are several other infractions documented in the report, a copy of which can be obtained from the Auditor-General’s office. The 2018 audited report therefore suggests a grave violation of the public trust.
“These damning revelations also suggest that the indicted MDAs lack effective and credible internal processes to prevent and combat corruption
“Our requests are brought in the public interest, and in keeping with the requirements of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended]; anti-corruption legislation, and the country’s international obligations including under the UN Convention against Corruption and the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption to which Nigeria is a state party”, SERAP stated.
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