One of our
problems as a people, as a society, is our intrinsic inability to be sincere,
even with ourselves, and from this derives dishonesty, which leads to
corruption, deceit, deception and fraud, and of course we know where this
eventually leads to, or rather, has led to – the stunting and impediment of
progress and development of the country, and a degenerate and depraved society.
We are reaping what we sow.
So why are we
so insincere and dishonest, even with ourselves, so much so that our notoriety
all over the world is confirmed? I hate to hazard a guess, because this will
open a whole can of cultural and psychological worms and I will be accused of
washing and airing our dirty linens in the public, as if we don’t do that on a
daily basis, more so by our so-called leaders and enlightened elites.
Although the
“sacking” has been denied by the Federal Government , and substituted with
“retired”, I decided to take the news that
a former Accountant General of the Federation, has been sacked by President Buhari for misappropriating 2.5 billion naira of security
agencies’ funds, http://www.informationng.com/2015/06/buhari-sacks-accountant-general-of-the-federation-over-alleged-misappropriation-of-funds.html ) as a Truth. Why not, you ask me?
Let us be sincere with ourselves, at least this time; to excuse the persons of the Accountant
Generals (and the Auditor Generals) of the Federation (past and present) and
their respective offices, from the massive looting that has been going on in
this country for decades will be like excusing corruption itself.
I hereby
submit that they are complicit in the looting that has been going on for
decades, and I have always wondered with some incredulity why the torch has
rarely been shone on them all these inordinate length of time. Their offices must
be the bedrock of the highest corruption; I have no doubt about that considering
the importance of their offices in the fiscal and economic well-being and
accountability of the nation.
That massive
fraud and looting has been taking place in this country for decades cannot be
contested by any sane Nigerian. So I ask myself, how can these important
offices dealing with our treasury integrity, accountability, propriety,
regularity, compliance and fiscal discipline, in that period not be aware, and
even complicit in the looting of the treasury and common wealth of this
country? If he (and any of his
predecessors) denies any knowledge or complicity, that says a lot about their
competence, integrity, knowledge and qualifications and questions should be
asked about how mediocre and inept civil servants got to the top of their
careers and into such prominent and responsible positions.
It is a damn
scam and pulling the wool over our collective eyes.
It is
impossible, simply dreadful for anybody in such a high government position to
deny any knowledge of the massive corruption that has been going on. And it is
equally intolerable to say they have not themselves benefited from the
looting. Having said this, the same goes for the past and present Auditor Generals
in the same period or longer. And again, this includes the Accountant and
Auditor Generals of ALL the states of the Federation, and might I add those of
the local governments (I think they call them Finance Officers or
whatever). This is the reality.
But we have
chosen to leave and forget them in their drab and dreary little offices, where
they shut themselves in and do deals and secrete money from the treasury, in
collusion with other civil servants and political office holders, while trying
to show to us that they are above board and honest.
This is not
so. These ilks of people, with their accounting knowledge are experts at
altering the ledgers, falsifying reports and putting forward fake figures. And most of them get away with it, because
they are very smart with manipulation of figures. I once entered a state’s
Accountant General’s office, and I could not believe the chaos and the laxity.
It was then I knew I could never rely on the reports they put out.
For
definition or explanation, the office of the Accountant General of the
Federation was established under Civil Services re-organization Decree No. 43
in 1988. The incumbent is responsible for the overall management of all receipt
and payments of the Republic of Nigeria and its responsibility is to promote
and enforce effective management in respect of revenue expenditure, assets and
liabilities of institutions in all three spheres of Government.
Complementarily,
the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation is a separate and
independent entity whose existence, powers, duties and responsibilities are
provided for under section 85 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria 1999. Section
85(6) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, state that
“in the exercise of his function under the Constitution, the Auditor General
shall not be subject to the director or control of any other authority or
person”. The Auditor General’s Department aims to meet the needs and
expectations of the National Assembly, the executive and its clients and to add
value to public sector performance and accountability. This independent review
is thus performed to ensure the propriety, regularity and compliance with all
the statutory and other regulatory requirements and the economy, efficiency and
effectiveness of the operations. An Auditor General is an ‘ally of the people
and the National Assembly’ and must act independently in carrying out all his
powers and duties. Independence is the cornerstone of public sector audit. The
Auditor General must be free from pressure, influence or interference from any
source that may erode that independence.
In accordance
to Section 85(5) of the 1999 Constitution, the Auditor-General shall, within 90
days of receipt of the Accountant General’s financial statement, submit his
Report to each House of the National Assembly (The Senate and the House of
Representatives) and each House shall cause the Report to be considered by a
Committee of the House of the National assembly responsible for Public accounts. The main function of the Public Accounts Committee is to review whether
public money was not spent for the approved purpose and with due regard to
efficiency, economy and effectiveness!
A lot of baloney
and flagrant defiance of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria!
From the
above, are these two offices compliance? We have thrown the Constitution to the
fire in this country, as we have turned democracy and governance on their
heads. For a laugh, quite recently, we had to contract out the auditing of the
accounts of the NNPC to an external company; which is a veritable sign of a
lack of confidence and trust in our own internal organ, the Office of the
Auditor General of the Federation. Shame!!!
No matter how
we love to point fingers, every Nigerian in public office from the messenger up
to the permanent secretary is prone to corruption; everything has a price and it's
going to take the combined efforts of every Nigerians to wipe it out. Every
government ministry, department and agencies (MDA’s they call themselves) is
corrupt to the core, and they gladly aid and abet the corrupt political office
holders. Sometimes they even initiate the corrupt activities of these
politicians, who are crude and may not know how to properly and safely steal
money.
Until we
strengthen and adequately addressed the deficiencies in our socio-political
system which will make it a serious punishable offense to just dip into and
steal government money with little or no consequences there will be no end to
these authority-stealing and unbridled looting. The issue is not only that of
defective structures; but depraved moral values have led to the constructing of
licentious and defective socio-political system and flawed structures.
Please if I
am wrong on my conjectures above, feel free to correct me. Nobody has a
monopoly of knowledge, but of personal opinion.
Let the Truth
be said always!
Akintokunbo A Adejumo MSc, Dip Mngt, CIHM, MCMI, FITP
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