Budget padding, ghost workers’ salaries: Prosecute culpable public officers, center tells ICPC

A Civil Society Organization, the Center for Fiscal Transparency and Integrity Watch (CeFTIW) has, in the wake of the recent revelation by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) that it uncovers infractions in the 2021 and 2022 appropriations, demanded for the immediate prosecution of culpable MDAs and Public Officers.

This, the Center said, would serve as deterrence and prevent willful acts of corruption in the nation’s budgeting process and public service in general.

This was contained in a statement released by the Center’s Head of Public Affairs, Victor Agi, who emphasized that such acts of corruption should not be swept under the carpet.

Agi’s statement read in part: “While the Center welcomes this move by the Commission, it equally urged for more preemptive actions by anti-corruption agencies to address infractions by MDAs and salvage the nation’s economy which is currently on a precipice according to a recent state of the economy report by the Ministry of Finance.

“Although the ICPC boss disclosed that the names of MDAs involved in these acts of corruption would be released to the Committee, we equally demand that these names be publicized for public scrutiny. Public officers who are found to be culpable should immediately be prosecuted to serve as deterrence.”

The statement quoted the ICPC’s Chairman to have said: “N300bn would have been wasted by the federal government on duplicated projects inserted into the 2021 budget and N100bn for same purpose in the current fiscal year if not tracked and intercepted by ICPC.

“The good thing about the preemptive moves made by us is that monies for the fraudulent acts were prevented from being released to the affected MDAs and it’s gratifying that the Finance Ministry and Accountant General Office cooperated with us,” Owasanoye was reported to have said.

It was also revealed that the ICPC move saved the country an estimated N50 billion for salaries of ghost workers put on fictitious payroll by the fraudulent MDAs between January and June of 2022.

Agi stated that the nation’s history with fiscal imprudence, amidst dwindling revenue, remains a source of concern, and seized the opportunity to call on stakeholders to strengthen mechanisms that promote transparency and accountability in the public sector.

The ICPC revelation was the fallout of an interactive session with the Senate Committee on Finance in preparation for the 2023 budget at the National Assembly yesterday.