Audit of recovered loot: Matters arising

President Muhammadu Buhari may have unwittingly directed attention to the bull’s eye with respect to the core weakness of the nation’s public service, with his inauguration of a Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered (Stolen) Public Property last Wednesday. At that occasion he had inaugurated a three-member committee to audit the records of all assets recovered by relevant government agencies in the course of the administration’s anti-corruption drive. Members of the committee are Olufemi Lijadu, Chinyere Bibiogha and Mohammad Nami. They were sworn in by Buhari and required to turn in their report within a period of four weeks. 

According to the President he had earlier asked all government agencies to submit detailed reports of all recoveries up to March 2017 to his office. “In the course of implementing this exercise and given the number of agencies who are concurrently pursuing specialized initiatives and making recoveries for government, it has become obvious that fundamental gaps still exist in ensuring that the recovered assets are accounted for, and managed in an accurate, transparent and logical manner”. This committee will therefore audit and in the process harmonise all relevant accounts in which the recovered assets where lodged to ensure reports submitted to him were accurate. He directed the committee to audit all remittances into the accounts up till April 2017 just as he also directed all MDAs, banks and companies to cooperate with the committee.

Already in the public domain are reports of recoveries of looted public properties by several ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) such as the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to mention just a few. Meanwhile strenuous efforts by various government agencies are on-going, in respect of recovering more of such stolen assets stashed away in different parts of the country, as well as foreign lands where they were frittered away.

Even if he did not say so specifically Buhari’s action in constituting the Committee betrays his frustration with the extant public service procedures just as it also serves as a major lament over and indictment of the failure of the government agency specifically – the Federal Ministry of Finance with its complement of agencies whose routine function is to track and provide accurate records of the status of public assets including such stolen and recovered assets. By this failure that Ministry has subjected the government to double jeopardy, as such assets were initially stolen and recovered only to be officially “unaccounted for” inspite of the routine protocol of documentation which they should have been subjected to, at the point of recovery. It is strongly hoped that the “unaccounted for” assets have not returned to the track of ‘missing’ items, which is the fear every right thinking Nigerian should share with President Muhammadu Buhari at this point!

Yet, going beyond the failures associated with the tale of the “unaccounted for” assets is the bigger picture of system collapse in the country’s public service which the present instance under consideration is only just another ugly face. If officially reported, recovered stolen assets of government comprising in the main funds, which were supposedly lodged in various government bank accounts cannot be accounted for in this era of internet assisted banking, what happens to the mainstream administration of public finance across the country?

It needs no emphasis to state that the country’s public service establishment is in dire need of drastic reforms with respect to instilling a new regime of accountability, which the present administration, may have expressed willingness to address, but has so far proven to be incapacitated to act. Yet it has on other choice but to address such a task, that is if its mission to effect meaningful change in the country’s polity as expressed in various promises to Nigerians will be fulfilled. And in no other area beyond making public officers accountable for their actions remains the main challenge of change for this administration. This is why the syndrome of unbridled impunity rules the turf in the public service. In several MDAs the common practice is that any officer that controls any schedule of government business sees it as his or her own share of the national cake. And who knows if some of the recovered “unaccounted for” assets may have been passed off as the shares of the national cake of the designated officers in charge of such recoveries?

In the context of the foregoing therefore the mission of the three member Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Loot may not be a picnic, in any sense, but an uphill task in which as is easy to see offers twists and turns that will be tasking. Yet that is not to say that they should flag along on the way, especially as the President’s directive extends to mustering support from all banks and MDAs, to help the Committee succeed.

Beyond the Committee’s dispensation is the imperative for a holistic review of the country public service with respect to reinventing it for effective service delivery to Nigerians. This expectation has been nursed by several past administrations, with some even conducting some cosmetic adjustments to its processes, which at the end of the day translated into marginal dividends for the country. This time it requires the intervention of the National Assembly to address the reform of the country’s public bureaucracy towards making it work for all Nigerians and not just some Nigerians as is the case now.

By the way this is to congratulate the Clerk to the National Assembly Barrister Mohammed Ataba Sani-Omolori for launching a new operational order for the staff of the federal legislature towards ensuring higher sense of accountability and better service delivery from them all. Can his initiative serve as an inspiration to the rest of the country’s public service establishment?