Over
N5tn in government funds have been stolen through fraud, embezzlement and theft
since President Goodluck Jonathan assumed office on May 6, 2010, a SUNDAY
PUNCH investigation has found.
Our
correspondents arrived at the stolen sum after poring over the reports of the
various committees set up by the President to probe some sectors of the
economy, particularly oil and gas. SUNDAY PUNCH also relied on disclosures by some senior
government officials.
Five
trillion naira is the summation of government funds said to have been stolen,
according to the Mallam Nuhu Ribadu-led Petroleum Task Force report; the
Minister of Trade and Investment’s report on stolen crude; the House of
Representatives fuel subsidy report and investigations into the ecological
fund, SIM card registration and frequency band spectrum sale.
The
Ribadu report on the oil and gas sector put daily crude oil theft at a high
250,000 barrels daily at a cost of $6.3bn (N1.2trn) a year. This puts the total
amount lost through oil theft in the two years of Jonathan’s government at over
$12.6bn (N2trn).
Oil
theft is common in the Nigerian oil and gas sector. In June, a special naval
team impounded a French ship, MT Vannessa, at Brass Loading Terminal, Bayelsa
State, for allegedly stealing 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day from the
country.
Our
sister publication, SATURDAY PUNCH, had reported that the suspects, in their
confessional statements, indicted some political office holders, many fuel
marketers and some officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and
Department of Petroleum Resources.
In
October, Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, in a letter to
the President, said 24 million barrels of oil worth $1.6bn (N252bn) was stolen
between July and September.
According
to Aganga, his signature was forged on the Export Clearance Permit that was
used to export the crude oil from Nigeria.
Confirming
that oil theft was depleting Nigeria’s resources, the Minister of Finance, Dr.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in May, said the government lost a fifth of its oil
revenues to theft in April.
Apart
from income lost through oil theft, the Ribadu report also said ministers of
Petroleum Resources between 2008 and 2011 handed out seven discretionary oil
licences and that government lost $183m (N29bn) in signature bonuses via these
deals.
The
Ribadu panel discovered that three of the oil licences were awarded under the
current petroleum minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, who took up her
position in 2010. Alison-Madueke, however, denied knowledge of the
discretionary awards.
Shortly
before the Ribadu report, the House of Representatives had raised the alarm
that the N2.6trn the Federal Government paid for oil subsidy in 2011 could not
be properly accounted for.
The
House said, “Fuel subsidy payments amounted to N261.1bn in 2006, N278.8bn in
2007 and N346.7bn in 2008, but, even after the subsidy on diesel had been
removed, the ‘subsidy’ payments jumped to N2.58trn in 2011 — more than 900 per
cent of the sum appropriated for the year (N245bn).”
A
subsequent report by the Presidential Committee on Verification and
Reconciliation of Fuel Subsidy Payments, led by Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede,
revealed that in 2011, 197 subsidy transactions worth N232bn were illegitimate.
These
frauds are not limited to the oil industry, as similar probes have shown that
almost all sectors are involved.
In
July, the House of Representatives Committee on Environment discovered a tree
seedling fraud worth N2bn awarded by the Ecological Fund office.
Chairman
of the committee on environment, Mrs. Uche Ekwunife, said this during an
investigative hearing on the mismanagement of ecological funds for the
development of tree nurseries and seedlings in the 36 states.
According
to her, out of the N3bn approved by the Presidency in 2010, N2bn was released
to the contractors and consultants without government getting value.
Minister
of Environment Hadiza Mailafia, however, said the contract was awarded by her
predecessor.
In
the telecommunications sector, the House instituted a probe into the sale of
the frequency brand spectrum, which was reportedly sold for less than its value.
The
450MHz frequency, which was valued at over $50m, was allegedly sold for less
than $6m (a difference of $44m or N6.9bn) by the Nigeria Communications
Commission.
In
the same sector, the reps, earlier this year, commenced investigations into the
N6.1bn SIM card registration project embarked upon by the NCC in 2011.
The
investigation followed the delay in completing the exercise and the request by
NCC for additional N1bn for the project in its 2012 budget.
The
lawmakers insisted that the NCC had no business embarking on the project since
various service providers were already registering their subscribers.
Deputy
Chairman, House Committee on Communications, Mr. Usman Bawa, had said, “The NCC
has no business with SIM card registration. Apart from that, the service
providers have done about 80 per cent of the registration because they started
before the NCC. To me, for the regulatory body to be involved in the
registration is a duplication of effort, a waste of resources and time.
“Even,
the manner with which the bill for the N6.1bn was passed during the Sixth
Assembly showed that there was more to it than meets the eyes. From our
investigations, from which our report was compiled, our interactions with the
NCC contractors for the SIM card registration and the service providers, a lot
has been exposed and this was part of the reason why we removed the N1bn that
was budgeted for the same SIM card registration in the last budget.”
It
would be recalled that the then Minister of Information and Communication, Prof.
Dora Akunyili, had, in August, 2010, agreed that the amount budgeted for SIM
card registration was exorbitant.
Reacting
to the massive frauds that have greeted Jonathan’s tenure, Transparency
International, told one of our correspondents that Nigeria would continue to
slack in development as long as it keeps paying lip service to the fight
against corruption.
It
said via electronic mail, “President Jonathan should insist that those accused
of corruption are properly investigated and punished if found guilty,
irrespective of their positions and connections. The judiciary must be seen as
impartial and fair.
“To
signal a break with the past, the government should set up an independent
investigatory panel to review charges of corruption within government and the
private sector. President Jonathan should endorse the panel and commit to
ensure it has both the scope and the power to investigate and prosecute.
“This
is not just a matter of justice; fighting corruption can affect the lives and
livelihoods of millions of people. The current culture of corruption hurts the
majority of Nigerians while the inequality gap widens.”
Also
speaking to SUNDAY PUNCH,
the Director, Centre for Applied Economics, Lagos Business School, Prof. Pat
Utomi, said the spate of corruption in the country was unprecedented.
The
political economist argued that prosecution and jail terms for corrupt
individuals would not be as effective as building a societal institution that
would prevent corruption.
A
former Vice Chancellor, Crescent University, Prof. Sheriffdeen Tella, also
warned that corruption would spell doom for the country if the trend continued.
He
said, “It is unfortunate that the country will not be able to meet the
Millennium Development Goals. There is a need for the masses to hold a
three-day protest against corruption to force government to prosecute those
indicted for corruption.”
Similarly,
Executive Chairman, Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, Mr. Debo Adeniran, said,
“For Jonathan to fight corruption, he must start with his cabinet. The way
Jonathan is going about his campaign against corruption is not the best way to
go about it.”
A
global audit and financial advisory firm, KPMG, had on Thursday stated that
Nigeria accounted for the highest number of fraud cases in Africa in the first
half of 2012.
The
cost of fraud in the country during the period was put at $1.5bn (N225bn).
Source: PUNCH
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