…..pushes blame on MDAs over N173bn payment without proper records

The Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Ahmed Idris, spent N520,000 to counter a request for Freedom of Information (FOI) on N173 billion spending without proper records.

The FOI request from Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) is a follow-up to Dataphyte’s May 29th story titled, “₦173 Billion Payments Without Description Defeats Nigeria’s Open Government Initiative”.

The report, an analysis of data on the Open Treasury Portal showed ₦173 Billion worth of payments made between January and April 2020 with no description. These payments were cumulative records of 1,353 payments to various ministries, parastatals, security agencies, educational institutes, among others.

A breakdown of the figures showed that the zero description payments in January and February 2020 were ₦5.16 billion and ₦67.76 billion, respectively. In March and April 2020, the FG also paid ₦85.2 billion and ₦15.22 billion to various contractors, Dataphyte had reported.

In a move to get the details of the payments, the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre) and Dataphyte filed a request for details of those payments. In line with the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, 2011, the NGO also asked the OAGF to explain to Nigerians how the huge sum was paid into different ministries and parastatal without a proper schedule.

Till date, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) continues to shun the FOI request after more than 30 days.

A shocking move – N520,000 to respond to FOI request

Instead of responding to the FOI request, the Accountant General paid N520, 000 to publish a reaction to the story. According to an Insider, a full-page advertorial on Daily Trust Newspaper costs N526,000.

The Accountant General, who did not deny the report, pushed the blame to MDAs for not providing descriptions.

“It is the responsibility of MDAs to give clear and unambiguous descriptions of those payments,” a part of the paid advertorial reads.

Mr. Olanrewaju Suraj, Chairman of HEDA, told Dataphyte in a phone conversation on Monday that the response of the Accountant General of the Federation was embarrassing.

“Well, it is embarrassing. The Accountant General could have replied by writing a letter as it is required under the FOI Act.

“The Office did not only delayed response for more than a month, but the response was issued in a PAID advertorial. It is a critical expression and abuse of civil service. It is an abuse to the office of the Accountant General. An office that should be above MDAs in reply to the FOI Act.

“The money used on paying for the advert should have served other purposes, not only for the country but citizens, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Mr. Suraj said HEDA is currently reviewing and will use the Accountant General response in further actions.

“With respect to possible judicial review and/or a petition to the law enforcement agencies on the cases reported.”

In December 2019, the Federal Government launched the Open Treasury Portal. The portal mandates all MDAs to publish transactions above N5 million. Despite partial compliance, MDAs submit incomplete records, which are in turn, uploaded on the portal by the Office of the Accountant General.