Fighting corruption in the public service
AT last, the 2002 annual audit report on the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) by the Auditor-General of the Federation has served the Federal Government with hard evidence with which it can earnestly prosecute its war against official corruption. The report showed that a number of Area Tax Offices of FIRS in different parts of the country had fraudulently mismanaged tax proceeds accruing to the Federation Pool Account.
For example, nearly N2 billion out of tax receipts paid into FIRS-designated commercial banks for regular onward remittance to the Stamp Duties Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria was diverted midway as there were no supporting or confirmatory statements at the CBN. Another sum of about N1 billion was delayed in various banks for several months during which the funds were put to commercial use before being remitted to the CBN.
Various other sums amounting to about N100 million of value added and withholding taxes paid into accredited banks were neither covered with treasury receipts nor remitted to the pool account. Government again sustained loss of revenue because arrears of taxes were either not collected or remitted where they were collected. While revenue was similarly lost through under-assessment, realised revenue was mismanaged through inflation of the cost of several contracts for supplies or refitting of offices.
Significantly, the Public Account Committee of the House of Representatives, citing similar and widespread malpractices in most ministries and parastatals, noted in a report submitted recently thus: "Cases of theft, destruction of records, circumvention of rules, connivance of defraud governments by public officials and their collaborators, and other anomalies are still rampant."
A product of a year-long inspection of finances in government offices, the report or at least its excerpts carried by the media, are general and sweeping accounts of corrupt actions by officials, which do not contain actual figures and values of specific cases of fraud perpetrated in any particular agencies by any named erring officials or collaborators in any given year.
Thus, excepting the pointed observation that lack of commitment by internal auditors in most ministries and departments made for undetected large-scale frauds, the report does not possess any penal and deterrent value. Rather it appears to be a tool for the legislature to square up to the executive as co-occupiers of a glass house who should not throw stones.
Over the years the finances of the National Assembly have been quite messy and ill-accounted for. The legislature is largely peopled by those who see their membership of the National Assembly as an investment which must yield profit. The sole intent of the PAC's report seems to be establishing grounds for wresting enhanced budgetary vote for the National Assembly and denting the executive's moral authority to demand for accountability.
Fortunately, any report issued by the Auditor-General is a different matter altogether. It is conclusive. Erring public officials are expected to suffer immediate and appropriate sanctions under relevant sections of the Civil Service Rules, the Financial Regulations and the Code of Conduct. They are, along with their collaborators, also liable to criminal prosecution.
The vital role of the Auditor-General in eliminating or at least minimising fraud in all public institutions is provided for under sections 85-87 of the 1999 Constitution. The Auditor-General is not only guaranteed security of tenure but also vested with power to conduct periodic checks of all government statutory corporations, commissions, authorities, agencies including all persons and bodies established by an Act of the National Assembly and submits reports to the National Assembly. The Internal Auditor-in-charge of any public establishment is enjoined under the Financial Regulations to render half-yearly reports to the Accounting Officer, with copy to the Auditor-General and the Accountant-General.
With regard to the 2002 Audit Report on FIRS, audit inspection took place or was rounded off in July 2003 while the report was released in June 2004. The Auditor-General is apparently working behind schedule as there is no evidence that 2002 reports relating to other key public establishments are ready. In fact, it is 2003 annual reports of the Auditor-General that are right now due for release.
Meanwhile, in spite of the fact that President Olusegun Obasanjo in his May 29, 1999 inaugural speech pledged to uproot deep-seated corruption, he disclosed only last week that recently concluded self-review pilot studies have brought home to him the existence of what he termed an "abysmally decadent and corrupt" public service. What then is the purpose of the statutory period reports of the Auditor-General
- Five years into his tenure, the President presides over a depraved system in which strategically placed officials and political appointees, acting with total impunity, practically seize fraudulently sizeable chunks of funds appropriated for the running of affairs for the public good. Can a public service so plundered be efficient
Government's latter-day pet project of raising the standard of public service especially in the Civil Service should be anchored on the strict observance by all institutions of laid-down rules while political electees and appointees should faithfully abide by their oaths of office. The Service will not benefit from any misdirected purge, as is being threatened, of unfortunate elements who are prevented from making positive contribution by the very nature of the corrupt system.
To this end, the Auditor-General should take up his constitutional responsibilities and turn in reports on all public institutions timely. Erring public officials and culpable elements of the political class should be made to pay for any misdeeds without any delay. Instead of re-enacting the ill-informed and blanket sack "with immediate effect" of 1975/76 which is largely responsible for the present pervasive corruption in the public sector, government should equally brace up and make the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and similar organs as well as the relevant courts to deal expeditiously and non-selectively with the numerous cases already lying before them. That sends a chillingly correct message to all.
