The Accountant General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, has countered the claim by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Betta Edu, over the payment of N585.2 million of government funds into a private bank account of an official.
A leaked memo revealed that Mrs Edu, in December, requested Mrs Madein, the accountant general of the federation, to transfer the money from the National Social Investment office account to the UBA account of Bridget Oniyelu, the accountant of a federal government poverty intervention project called Grants for Vulnerable Groups.
The project is under Mrs Edu’s ministry.
As previously reported by PREMIUM TIMES, the transfer contravenes various sections of Nigeria’s Financial Regulations 2009 meant to prevent fraud and other forms of corruption in government business.
Chapter Seven, Section 713 of Nigeria’s Financial Regulations 2009 which emphasises separating public and personal money in government transactions states that “Personal money shall in no circumstances be paid into a government bank account, nor shall any public money be paid into a private account (Minister Edu clearly violates this section).”
The section, in addition, says, “Any officer who pays public money into a private account is deemed to have done so with fraudulent intention.” It is very clear that the intent of the law here is to prevent fraud in government business.
But Mrs Edu, through her media aide, Rasheed Zubair, on Friday, said the payment of the N585.2 million into a private account is legal in the country’s civil service.
“It is legal in civil service for a staff, the project accountant, to be paid and use the same funds legally and retire same with all receipts and evidence after the project or programme is completed,” the statement stated.
The minister claimed the memo was leaked as part of a plot to blackmail her.
Mrs Madein, in a statement, on Saturday, distanced her office from the illegal transaction by Mrs Edu and also dismissed the minister’s action as illegal.
The accountant general of the federation admitted that her office had received Mrs Edu’s request for the transfer of the N585.2 million to Ms Oniyelu’s private account, but that she refused to honour it.
“The Ministry was advised on the appropriate steps to take in making such payments in line with the established payment procedure,” she said. “No bulk payment is supposed to be made to an individual’s account in the name of the Project Accountant.”
Mrs Madein said payments like N585.2 million “are usually processed by the affected ministries as self-accounting entities.”
“She added that such payment should be sent to the beneficiaries through their verified bank accounts,” the statement stated.
This implies that Mrs Edu’s humanitarian affairs ministry went ahead to pay the N585.2 million into Ms Oniyelu’s private account, against Mrs Madein’s advice, and in violation of Nigeria’s law.
Minister Edu’s memo adds another layer of scandal to the ongoing EFCC investigation of the suspended National Coordinator of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), Halima Shehu over alleged N37.1 billion fraud in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.
Mrs Shehu, in December, said over 1.5 million households in the country have received N20,000 from the Conditional Cash Transfer programme of the federal government.
The government intervention programme is now tainted by the fraud allegations.
Mrs Edu’s predecessor, Sadiya Umar-Farouk, is being investigated by the EFCC for alleged fraud.
Nigerians, outraged by the memo, are calling for Mrs Edu’s suspension from office.
Credit: Premium Times
