• Government has to take proactive measures to prevent stealing of public funds
For the umpteenth time, Nigerians are confronted with allegations of fraudulent activities against top officials of yet another public agency; the Rural Electrification Agency (REA). As with other known such allegations, we are talking about billions of naira lost or misapplied. Even as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is still trying to unravel the full story of the alleged frauds in REA, we are confronted with another suspected fraud or misapplication of public funds in the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.
Already, the anti-graft commission is beaming its searchlight on the REA. It said it has traced 27 accounts to REA’s managing director, Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad, whereas he only declared two accounts to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB). Ahmad is now suspended.
The commission is also investigating N12.4billion COVID 19 funds, which were disbursed to the agency in two tranches. It suspected about N6bn of it has been diverted.
What however triggered Ahmad’s suspension was about N1.2billion that was wired by him into the accounts of eight members of the staff of the agency.
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With regard to the Federal Ministry of Health, the House of Representatives Committee on Anti-Malaria, HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis gave the minister, Prof. Mohammed Ali Pate, and the permanent secretary, Daju Kachollom, 72 hours to appear before it, to explain the alleged misappropriation of $300 million meant for the funding of malaria since 2021.
Chairman of the committee, Amobi Godwin Ogah, is unhappy that the permanent secretary had shunned three previous invitations and threatened to have her arrested if she failed to appear before the committee this time around. “Malaria is now an epidemic in Nigeria. The government has always wanted to help the people, but most times the civil servants are our problem. This money has been made available since 2021. We have been inviting the permanent secretary. This is the third time we are inviting her to come and explain to us what has happened’’, Ogah said.
It is sad that the country is always having these sorts of nasty experiences from public institutions saddled with ameliorating the sufferings of Nigerians. REA was set up with the noble objective of providing rural dwellers with stable electricity supply. This is laudable because it comes with a lot of advantages. If rural dwellers have stable and cheap power supply, the motivation for urban migration would have been curtailed, with the possibility of even development across the country.
Now, that noble objective is being threatened with stories of alleged fraud against top officials of the agency.
Similarly, malaria is a major killer in Africa and the Federal Government has been making serious efforts to get rid of it before 2030. But, how does that materialise when we are not having accountability for monies voted for its eradication? How do we achieve that when, rather than account for how they spent allocations for it, those responsible for the management of the funds resort to asking people to talk to the committee asking questions on the misappropriated funds? Ogah asked: “Have they used the money? If they have not used the money, where is the money? It is a matter of simple explanation. But they have been running away, calling all manner of people to talk to us.’’
This is disheartening. But more worrisome is the fact that the government is always doing post-mortem on financial matters; that is, moving into action after public funds had been stolen or misapplied. This is not good enough.
We need structures in place that would make it difficult for public officials to have unhindered access to huge public funds such that we would be talking of billions of naira stolen or suspected to have been stolen or misappropriated only after the money had left the government’s purse. What are the accounts sections doing? What are the auditors doing?
We urge Mr Ogah and his committee members as well as the EFCC to do their work of following the money, with a view to getting back for the government its stolen funds. Where frauds are detected, the concerned officials should be prosecuted to serve as warning that public funds are not to be tampered with.
