Government parastatals disbursed ₦2.48 trillion in ten months, according to details from the Open Treasury Portal. But eight percent of said transactions had no descriptions. Already experts had earlier noted nameless transactions to be reminiscent of corruption. So with ₦210.4 billion unaccounted for, how effective is President Buhari’s transparency campaign?
- Federal MDAs issued ₦2.48 trillion as payment between Jan and October 2020;
- Out of 27,763 transactions, 1,742 records had zero description;
- The records have ₦210 billion payments without description;
- Nigerian Army, Nigerian Airforce, Defence HQ and Ministry of Works and Housing among notorious MDAs.
Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies spent ₦2.48 trillion from January to October, details from the Open Treasury Portal (OTP) show. Of the sum, however, payments worth over ₦210 billion had no description. Overall, they were 27,763 entries featuring upfront payment completed, but with deficient details. Further analysis of the transaction showed that 1,742 records had zero description.
Dataphyte had earlier identified these discrepancies in other MDAs. And in other instances, these transactions had sparse details. These occurrences not only make it difficult to track or trace budget items, but hinders transparency to civil societies and media organisations.
₦ 210.4 billion payments have no description
In the last ten months, eight percent of transactions corresponding to ₦210,402,030,111 had no descriptions. Starting out with ₦5.1 billion in January and peaking in March at ₦85 billion with 798 undetailed transactions. Further fluctuations continued in the ensuing month before settling at ₦488.85 million on October 25.
Nigerian Army, Nigerian Airforce, Defence HQ and Ministry of Works and Housing among Defaulting MDAs
Among erring MDAs were the Ministry of Defence Headquarters, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Nigerian Airforce, and Niger Delta Ministry. Each with a high number of undescriptive transactions. Also wanting were the Police Formations and Command, Nigerian Correctional Service, among others.
Further perplexing, Dataphyte’s analysis found anti-corruption agency Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) with non-descriptive transactions worth ₦48.28 million. Already experts have cried foul at these ‘tactics from MDAs’, hinting at corruption. So, imagine the irony of finding the EFCC, a name that should be the antithesis of corruption, on the corruption list.
Expenditure spike since February, peaking at March with ₦468.4 billion
Government parastatals dispensed ₦14.4 billion in January 2020, with over 55% for personnel of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR). According to the data from the OTP, DPR staff received ₦8 billion as salary upfront in the month.
January also accounted for MDAs lowest disbursement, as expenditure escalated in the ensuing months.
Budget allocation for MDAs in February, March, and April corresponded to ₦192.7 billion, ₦468,4 billion, and ₦145.9 billion. Within the first four months, however, ₦173 Billion worth of payments had no description. March also featured the highest disbursement. Responding to this discrepancy, a Dataphyte report pondered the counter-productiveness of these occurrences with Federal government’s transparency initiatives.
Overall, federal government parastatals disbursed ₦2,484,414,448,049.57, per the Open Treasury Portal (OTP) daily payment transactions.
Breakdown of monthly payments by Federal MDAs – January – October 2020
A downward trend in fictitious payment- 2019 vs 2020
Interestingly, despite the prevalence of unclear transactions, Nigeria is better off. Analysing the trend from a year ago highlighted a decline in occurrence. For 2019, details from the Accountant General for eleven months outlined zero description transactions worth ₦510 billion.
Policy implication
Nonetheless, Nigeria’s transparency outlook concerning her parastatals are miles off optimal. Rather, these questionable payments negates the very policy and guidelines of the Open Treasury Portal. Within its guidelines, the treasury portal mandates all MDAs and the Accountant General of the federation (AOGF) to fill in various report parameters. Some of which include payment number, payer code, agency, beneficiary names, amount, and description. It also places the responsibility of the AOGF to enforce fiscal transparency.
This was impractical, according to Atiku Samuel, who complained about the weak nature of Nigeria’s financial system. The policy analyst also criticised the bureaucratic nature of sanctions; it is long and overstretched. This further makes it almost impossible to bring perpetrators to book. Already, the Auditor-General of the Federation has raised several financial improprieties and corruption accusations against the MDAs. Still, relevant government agencies have disciplined no defaulting actors. Mr Samuel further highlighted dire implications in the international community if it remained business as usual; Nigeria would suffer neglect in international aid and borrowings from donors and foreign organisations. The status of the country’s transparency index would also continue to deteriorate.
Experts to engage MDAs over data transparency
Hamzat Lawal, founder of Follow The Money, says his organisation and BudgIT are planning to write to the Minister of Finance on issues bordering around data transparency in Nigeria, most especially COVID-19 spending.
“It is unfortunate we cannot trace some payments on the open treasury portal of the government.The OTP has not achieved its vision, and that is why there are a lot of shady payments, including non-description, payment to individual accounts, etc.”
Likewise, Mr Olanrewaju Suraj, chair of Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA), told Dataphyte that his organisation will start engaging in MDAs committing those atrocities.
“On this matter, we wrote the Accountant General of Federation, but the unfortunate situation is that they never replied to our letter but wasted Nigeria resources by going through newspaper advert to abdicate responsibilities. Why would you be covering up those atrocities committed by Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of government?”
Mr Suraj also said the Accountant-General should have directed requests to the affected ministries, demanding a response from them. “Going forward we are going to engage the MDAs committing those atrocities and involve the anti-corruption agencies.”
Similarly, BudgIT had urged the federal government to standardise the portal such that it will be impossible to input incomplete or vague information.