The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Overseer

  • Church launches foundation for late overseer

    Members of Christ’s Disciples Central Fellowship last weekend inaugurated a foundation in memory of its late General Superintendent, Pastor Joe Solomon who died on October 17, 2016.

    The inauguration in Lagos was preceded by a lecture titled: Following the path of integrity. 

    It was delivered by General Overseer of Treasure Word Evangelical Ministries, Apostle Ralph Williams.

    Williams described his late mentor and teacher as an upright and devout Christian who lived a life of integrity and uprightness that has outlived him.

    While faulting clerics who live big and seek titles at the expense of the church, he urged leaders to help in the fight against corruption by upholding their integrity and values for the good of the nation.

    Lead Pastor of the church, Rev. Emmanuel Akpan, explained beneficiaries of the foundation will include orphans, those in social need and up to age 14; widows from 60 years and above as well as those with the Down syndrome disease.

    Giving a run-down of how the church began operations on October 5, 1990 as a prayer group, Akpan noted it has grown to have 26 branches in Nigeria and abroad, adding the foundation was formed to honour his legacies and keep his memories alive.

    On the church’s successor, he said will be chosen based on the constitution of the church.

    “He has implanted in us how to live a life of integrity, and that integrity must be sustained for the continuity of the church.”

  • National Assembly Budget: Who oversees the overseer?

    National Assembly Budget: Who oversees the overseer?

    How much do Nigerians know about the National Assembly budget procedure? In this report, Jide Babalola, Assistant Editor, Abuja, takes a look at a process in which the lawmakers’ budgets are approved by same legislators without outside oversight.

    Many Nigerians may feel outraged to know that over the past five years; the National Assembly annually spends about half a billion naira on the maintenance of generators alone! Within a period of four years, not less than three contracts were awarded at close to one billion naira, for installing or rehabilitating closed circuit television (cctv) cameras within the Assembly complex. Also, standard Plasma television sets were procured for the offices of each Senator, Representative and other National Assembly top bureaucrats at about five times the market rate – at about N500, 000 each.

    To some extent, shielding the National Assembly’s annual N150b budget from citizens’ scrutiny helps to save many from seeing expenditure items that could generate major headaches and depression. In a country where millions daily live on less than N500 per day, a cctv installation contract of N200m on some very frivolous item like N15 million special glass cups for drinking wine, beer or juice could be randomly awarded to a lucky beneficiary. Such contractors are usually in two categories – highly connected persons or mere fronts for the powers -that – be.

    Beaming a searchlight on the catacombs of the National Assembly’s thoroughly opaque budget would require more than sheer guts and political will. The scandals waiting to be uncovered therein are of gargantuan propensities and for years, the prevailing wisdom had been to literally let sleeping dogs lie, feed fat and lie further while pretentiously projecting commitments towards service and sacrifice.

    After all, it is the National Assembly that investigates suspicious or fraudulent activities in the oil sector; calls law enforcement and security agencies to order when it deemed necessary while its sustained practice of ‘inviting’ chief executives of various parastatals is now wearing thin on effect.

    Budget

    The word “budget” is derived from an old French word ‘bougette’ (purse) which implies a quantified financial plan for a forthcoming accounting period. The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, the world’s largest professional body of management accountants defines a budget as “a quantitative expression of a plan for a defined period of time that may include planned sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities, costs and expenses, assets, liabilities and cash flows. It expresses strategic plans of business units, organizations, activities or events in measurable terms.”

    Nowhere is a public budget defined as a classified document to be shrouded in mystery and held away from the scrutiny of taxpayers.

    Broadly, Wikipedia, the online treasure trove of information, defines the purpose of a budget document as being to “aid the planning of actual operations by forcing managers to consider how the conditions might change and what steps should be taken now and by encouraging managers to consider problems before they arise. It also helps co-ordinate the activities of the organization by compelling managers to examine relationships between their own operation and those of other departments.” Other essentials aspects attributed to a budget include: controlling resources, communicating plans to others bearing relevant responsibilities, motivating managers towards striving to achieve budget goals, enhancing performance and ensuring accountability.

     

    Legislatures’ budgets elsewhere

    In terms of secrecy, the National Assembly’s budget process probably stands in a unique position of its own among all the legislatures’ budgets in the entire universe. The Senate President, the Speaker, their two deputies, Chairmen of Services Committees in both the Senate and House of Representatives, along with the Clerk of the National Assembly (CNA) are the top crust of everything in Nigeria’s federal legislature.

    The CNA has a handful of very powerful civil servants under him, including the Director of Procurement through whose offices all procurement arrangement passes; the Director of Finance who oversees all payments and bank arrangements, and; the Director of Estate and Works who supervises all utilities’ maintenance (including generators) and construction. Working with the successive Directors of Estate and Works, since 1998, Julius Berger has continuously been engaged in one multi- billion Naira project after another within the National Assembly Complex. The civil servants maintain a strict code of silence and expectantly work towards gaining their bosses’ confidence while sustaining hopes for their coming turns in the future.

    The budget of a government is a summary or plan of the intended revenues and expenditures of that government. In Nigeria, except for a few privileged directors and principal officials, no one, not even most of the senior personnel of the National Assembly have the vaguest idea about items in the federal legislature’s budget.

    As budgeting is understood to be the setting of expenditure levels for each organization or government department’s functions, it is the estimation and allocation of available capital used to achieve designated targets.

    A budget process refers to the process by which governments create and approve a budget. In the United States whose democracy we seek to emulate, the budget process for the Senate or any other government department and the entire federal structure is unambiguously defined for the understanding of all.

    Their budget process is as follows:

    * The Financial Service Department prepares worksheets to assist the department head in preparation of department budget estimates

    * The Administrator calls a meeting of managers and they present and discuss plans for the following year’s projected level of activity.

    * The managers can work with the Financial Services, or work alone to prepare an estimate for the departments coming year.

    * The completed budgets are presented by the managers to their Executive Officers for review and approval.

    * Justification of the budget request may be required in writing. In most cases, the manager talks with their administrative officers about budget requirements.

    Adjustments to the budget submission may be required as a result of this phase in the process.

    In their book, Public Budgeting in America, Smith, Robert W. and Thomas D. Lynch (2004) described public budgeting through four perspectives.  According to them, “The politician sees the budget process as ‘a political event conducted in the political arena for political advantage’. The economist views budgeting as a matter of allocating resources in terms of opportunity cost where allocating resources to one consumer takes resources away from another consumer. The role of the economist, therefore, is to provide decision makers with the best possible information. The accountant perspective focuses on the accountability value in budgeting which analyzes the amount budgeted to the actual expenditures thereby describing the “wisdom of the original policy”.

    Smith and Lynch’s public manager’s perspective on a budget is a policy tool to describe the implementation of public policy.

    In the United Kingdom, Parliament’s budget is part of general one prepared by the Treasury team led by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and is presented to Parliament by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Budget Day. Customarily, the Chancellor stands on the steps of Number 11, Downing Street with his or her team for the media to get photographic shots of the Red Box containing all budget documents, immediately prior to them going to the House of Commons. Once presented in the House of Commons it is debated and then voted on. Minor changes may be made however with the budget being written and presented by the party with the majority in the House of Commons, (The Government), the Whips then ensure that is it passed as written by the Chancellor.

    In United States, the legislative arm’s budget is encapsulated within the federal budget which is prepared by the Office of Management and Budget, and submitted to Congress for consideration. Invariably, Congress makes many and substantial changes.

    In India, the budget is prepared by the Budget Division Department of Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Finance annually.

    The Philippine budget, considered to be the most complicated in the world, incorporates multiple approaches in one single budget system: line-item (budget execution), performance (budget accountability), and zero-based budgeting. The Department of Budget and Management prepares the National Expenditure Programme and forwards it to the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representative to come up with a General Appropriations Bill (GAB). The GAB will go through budget deliberations and voting and the same process is repeated when the GAB is transmitted to the Philippine Senate.

    During all the deliberations and voting, public scrutiny of the legislatures’ budget is allowed, unlike the practice in Nigeria.

     

    Sterile watchdogs

    Ironically, Nigeria has some of the world’s most extensive laws to prohibit the secrecy and manipulations that go on behind the scene in the course of procurements and contract implementation in all government establishments, including the National Assembly.

    The Public Procurement Act of 2007 alone is a ferocious anti-corruption instrument that guarantees ten years jail term without any option of fines, for any official who infringes stringent rules on public procurement.

    Regularly, the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) harasses various government bodies over issues such as non-advertisement of contract bids before the award of huge contracts. However, BPP, like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and other Offences Commission (ICPC) and the nation’s Auditor-General’s office  know better than to dare ‘embarrass’ the nation’s legislative arm.

    When one notes that it is rare to see tenders being published in Nigerian newspapers for contracts covered by the National Assembly’s annual N150 billion budget, the picture becomes clearer.

    The Public Procurement Act 2007 established the Bureau of Public Procurement charged with the responsibility to amongst others, provide legal and institutional framework and professional capacity for public procurement in Nigeria. The objectives of establishing the Bureau of Public Procurement are to;

    • Harmonize existing government policies and practices on public procurement and ensure probity, accountability and transparency in the procurement process;

    • Establish pricing standards and benchmarks;

    • Ensure the application of fair, competitive, transparent, value-for-money standards and practices for the procurement and disposal of public assets; and

    • Attain transparency, competitiveness, cost effectiveness and professionalism in the public sector procurement system.

    At a workshop in Abuja few days ago, the Director-General of the BPP, Emeka Eze stated that corrupt public officials prefer to be prosecuted by either EFCC or ICPC rather than under the Procurement Act.

    “The Procurement Act has no provision for a fine and has a maximum 10 calendar years and not prison-term years,” Eze stated at the event organized by the Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria in Abuja.

    There is also the EFCC Act which mandates the EFCC to combat financial and economic crimes. The Commission is empowered to prevent, investigate, prosecute and penalize economic and financial crimes and is charged with the responsibility of enforcing the provisions of other laws and regulations relating to economic and financial crimes, including:

    *Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Establishment act (2004)

    *The Money Laundering Act 1995

    *The Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2004

    *The Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 1995

    *The Failed Banks (Recovery of Debts) and Financial Malpractices in Banks Act 1994

    *The Banks and other Financial Institutions Act 1991; and Miscellaneous Offences Act.

    Another body that performs a watchdog function over public funds/procurements is the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC). It was inaugurated on September 29, 2000 following the recommendation of President Olusegun Obasanjo. Its mandate is to receive and investigate reports of corruption and in appropriate cases, prosecute the offender[s], to examine, review and enforce the correction of corruption prone systems and procedures of public bodies, with a view to eliminating corruption in public life, and to educate and enlighten the public on and against corruption and related offences with a view to enlisting and fostering public support for the fight against corruption.

    Till date, not a single case has been prosecuted in the course of disbursing the National Assembly’s five years’ cumulative N750 billion budget. Knowing the National Assembly’s sweeping powers, it is wise to give the place a wide berth while beaming a searchlight on problems elsewhere.

     

    Constitutional powers

    Section 81 of the 1999 Constitution deals with the authorization of expenditure from the Consolidated Revenue Fund, and like INEC and the nation’s judiciary, the National Assembly directly receives funds for its budget through the CRF.

    Provisions under Section 88 of the constitution deal with the power to conduct investigation into any matter in both the Exclusive and Concurrent legislative lists.

    It states thus:

    (1) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, each House of the National Assembly shall have power by resolution published in its journal or in the Official Gazette of the Government of the Federation to direct or cause to be directed investigation into-

     

    (a) any matter or thing with respect to which it has power to make laws, and

    (b) the conduct of affairs of any person, authority, ministry or government department charged, or intended to be charged, with the duty of or responsibility for –

    (i) executing or administering laws enacted by National Assembly, and

    (ii) disbursing or administering moneys appropriated or to be appropriated by the National Assembly.

    (2) The powers conferred on the National Assembly under the provisions of this section are exercisable only for the purpose of enabling it to –

    (a) make laws with respect to any matter within its legislative competence and correct any defects in existing laws; and

    (b) expose corruption, inefficiency or waste in the execution or administration of laws within its legislative competence and in the disbursement or administration of funds appropriated by it.

     

    Conclusion

    While the budgets of the Presidency, the Department of State Security Services, police and numerous ministries, departments and agencies are at least partly open open to scrutiny, that of the National Assembly remains a secret known only to a handful of persons who draw up the annual N150 billion document. According to Awwalu Rafsanjani, the head of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), a non-governmental advocacy body that has much interest in the National Assembly, the unnecessary veil of secrecy over their budget has facilitated much conjectures and suspicions. He told The Nation on Sunday that it is ironical that members of the assembly turn round to complain about speculations when members of the public randomly attribute all manners of non-transparent acts to them.

    Without any iota of doubt, Nigeria’s National Assembly operates the most opaque annual budget in the country. Some critics see it as an avenue for what they refer to as “democratised stealing”. It is an irony that the arm of government that statutorily conducts oversight functions on all ministries, departments and agencies shrouds its yearly humongous budget from even the most basic checks by citizens. None of its presiding officers or bureaucrats has come forward with any convincing or logical explanation as to why this has remained so over the years.

    Saying that the ruling All Progressives Congress ‘change’ mantra is needed in the National Assembly’s internal budgeting process would amount to stating the obvious. Observers of the national politics and the wind of change are therefore watching to see how things would differ under the current dispensation.

    Will it or will it not? The answer is in the winds…of change? We wait and see.

  • The overseer, accountant and us!

    The present controversy surrounding the alleged missing money has been made more controversial with the removal by suspension of the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (SLS). An otherwise straightforward situation has been so deliberately dramatized, that the citizenry is now confused and polarized. The following is my own dramatization of the situation.

    Afe Udia is a religious organization, whose membership is made up of only salaried employees. It is headed by the Overseer. The organization has different administrative departments for various roles. Part of the tenets of the organization is that each member must contribute 20% of his or her take-home salary to the organization. The accounts department is responsible for collecting the mandatory contributions. There is a governing committee which decides how monies should be spent and an expenditure committee that does actual disbursements. As is typical in organizations and even religious ones like Afe Udia, members in typical fashion start grumbling that the huge financial chest is not being properly managed and several projects including funding for the organizations charities are unsatisfactory.

    The governing council of Afe Udia decides to take steps to ensure accountability and boost confidence in the financial integrity of the organization. An independent accountant is appointed by the overseer after approval from the governing council. In his contract of appointment, the accountant is to use his best professional skills to further the interests of Afe Udia under the headship of the overseer. As standard policy and to maintain his independence, the contract stipulates that should the accountant be found wanting, the contact can be terminated and his services dispensed with by the overseer only with the approval of the governing council.

    The accountant commences his work in earnest and puts different structures in place to ensure success. Part of the new initiatives is that every member should make their contributions via a standing order to the employers, for the money to be deducted directly from the salary and paid to the finance committee. Thereafter the finance committee renders an account to the accountant who will then collect all the money and hand over to the governing committee. In the process of doing his work, the accountant discovers that some unit treasurers have been taking liberties with funds entrusted to them. After scrutinizing available records he informs the overseer that in accordance with his powers under the contract of appointment, he will replace some of them and recover stolen Afe Udia funds from them. He duly carries out his threat but of course with serious protestations from the affected unit treasurers and their supporters.

    From his observations and interactions within the Afe Udia, the accountant notices that whereas some officials are evidently living beyond their means, projects were suffering because of shortage of funds. He discusses this with the overseer who suggests that maybe the members should be levied a higher percentage. Still troubled by the anomaly and sensing that he was missing something, the accountant decides to seek help from the general tax office. He scrutinizes the returns made by the different employers of Afe Udia members under the employee tax scheme. He does his calculations and is alarmed at what he discovers.

    He makes a report to the overseer stating that from his records there was a huge disparity between what was being declared by the accounts committee and what should have been actually received based on the records of the tax office. The overseer does nothing and after some months the members get wind of the essence of the report to the overseer. The resultant outcry by members creates anxiety in the organization and has the overseer and his inner circle worried.

    The governing committee invites the accountant and finance committee members to iron out the discrepancies. The meeting is deadlocked as the accountant maintains his position that huge amounts are missing. The accounts committee explains that because of the poor power situation, it had to spend a huge sum replacing old generators in the branches and that reference to the expenditure committee would have occasioned delay thereby causing disruptions.

    The explanations fail to close the matter or the grumbling among members. The overseer’s intervention for the accountant to tell members that the explanations were acceptable and the accounts in order, fail to change the accountant’s stance.

    The overseer queries the loyalty of the accountant to him and the governing committee. He asks the accountant to resign because by his attitude he will cause disaffection in Afe Udia which could jeopardise his position in the organization. The accountant refuses to resign on the basis of his letter of appointment. He says that if the governing council approves that the overseer should remove him, then he will have no choice but to go. The overseer is not sure of some members of the governing council and in fact some of them had become close to the accountant. Some of the overseer’s staunch supporters sense his predicament and map out a plan to rescue the situation. A general meeting is called for the accountant issue to be discussed. The overseer’s supporters are very vocal and one after the other they lambaste the accountant. The meeting is told how the accountant although not a member of Afe Udia, has been going around criticizing the lifestyle of members of the governing committee. That he wants to cause disaffection in the organization hence he published the make and number of cars owned by the officials of the organization. That he was in the habit of flirting with female members of Afe Udia. That from the organization’s money at his disposal to carry out his work effectively as he deems necessary, he commissioned a restaurant to give free lunch to the indigent people who could make their way to the organizations premises every Monday and Wednesday. They angrily denounced this as reckless spending of the organizations money. That no similar organization had an accountant who behaved like Afe Udia’s accountant! When a dissenting member asked whether all contracts of appointment of accountants were uniform or whether this accountant had gone outside his contract of appointment, he was shouted down and told that the contract was stupidly drafted and when they queried and tried to change it, it was foolish members like him that scuttled the process. Another member reminded the meeting how the accountant even had the effrontery to ridicule the contents of the overseer’s last end of year message. So many accusations but the accountant when called upon to defend himself maintained his position that he had acted within his contract and that money was missing.

    The overseer in a surprising announcement to members following the meeting says the accountant will be denied access to his office and the organizations records and that the governing committee will soon appoint a new more competent accountant. The accountant’s assistant would replace him until a new appointment.

    Some members are however confused and are asking only a very few questions. In the midst of all the noise, what is the true position with the alleged missing money? How tenable is the answer by the finance committee that it diverted some of the money to buy generators for the branches without clearance from the governing committee? Why does the overseer’s body language give the impression that he thinks that no money is missing? How can the accountant know exactly how much is missing when he is not privy to how much exactly was diverted by the accounts department and for what purposes? And lastly, if the overseer locks out the accountant and prevents him from doing the work for which he was contracted, has he not effectively removed the accountant without the approval of the management committee?

    For me as a member of Afe Udia, there is only one question each for the overseer and the accountant: ‘Where is our money’? And ‘Why do you talk so much’?

    Only a fool does not know which should come first!

    • Ukpong, a legal practitioner writes from Lagos

  • ‘Ex-Oyo governors insincere’

    The General Overseer of the Save and Serve Christ Family Church in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, Bishop Jide Orire, yesterday said Governor Abiola Ajimobi’s performance in two years has “exposed past governors as insincere”.

    He said they should be probed.

    Bishop Orire said many people were surprised to witness the dualisation of major roads, construction of bridges and beautification of the city within a short time.

    He spoke in Ibadan during the consecration of Rev. Columba Niboro as a Bishop.

    The cleric hailed Ajimobi on road projects, saying they have eased traffic.

    He said: “If Ajimobi can embark on projects that cost billions of naira, then he is a focused leader. He has the people’s interest at heart. The people should begin to ask past governors what they did with the state’s fund.”

    Bishop Orire wondered where Ajimobi got the billions of naira he is spending on projects, saying: “So our previous leaders had been depriving the masses of good infrastructure, which we ought to have been enjoying since.”

    On the declaration of a state of emergency in three states to curb the activities of the Boko Haram sect, he said emergency rule was not the solution to insecurity.

    Bishop Orire there was nothing like Boko Haram. He said we are our own enemies, adding that some of our leaders are behind most of the crises in the nation.

    The cleric said: “Our leaders are greedy and not interested in the welfare of the populace. They are only interested in themselves and their family. They have forgotten that the money they are spending is tax-payer’s money, which is meant for everybody.”

    He said though declaring a state of emergency at this time is good, more needs to be done.

    Bishop Orire said until corruption and unemployment are addressed, the country will not know peace.

    He said: “The country produces hundred of thousands of graduates yearly and the unemployment rate is on the increase. If these youths are engaged, they would not have time for frivolous things.

    “They say an idle hand is the devil’s workshop. Let the governme nt find a solution to this and see what happens. I see a better Nigeria.”