BUDGET: SERAP wants action on stolen N481bn, alerts on plot to loot 2017 budget

Some N481bn may have been stolen from the 2016 budget through padding, according to the content of a letter written by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, (SERAP), and addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari.

The letter also raised the alarm on an alleged plot by some principal officers of the National Assembly to loot about N40 billion out of a N100 billion intervention fund budgeted for in 2017.

Dated March 24, and signed by its Deputy Director, Timothy Adewale, the mail said, “SERAP has received very credible information from multiple sources that the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have now completed investigations into the allegations of padding of the 2016 budget, completed their reports, and indicted some principal officers of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Also, the accounts of some of the principal officers containing allegedly illicit funds have been frozen, and that the case files for the prosecution of those indicted are ready.”

It added that, “SERAP has also received credible information from whistle-blowers about ongoing attempt by some principal officers of the National Assembly to allegedly steal N40 billion of the N100 billion allocated by your government as ‘zonal intervention’ (also known as constituency projects) in the 2017 budget.”

It, thereafter, called on Buhari, “to urgently instruct security and anti-corruption agencies to forward to you reports of their completed investigations into allegations of padding and stealing of some N481 billion from the 2016 budget by some principal officers of the National Assembly.”

It also requested the President to “direct the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami, SAN, and/or appropriate anti-corruption agencies to without delay commence prosecution of indicted officers; and to urgently halt alleged ongoing attempt by some principal officers of the National Assembly to divert N40 billion of the N100 billion allocated by your government as ‘zonal intervention’ in the 2017 budget”

The organization warned Buhari to “take the above recommended steps within 14 days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter, failing which SERAP will institute appropriate legal and public-interest proceedings to compel the government to discharge its national and international anti-corruption obligations and commitments in this matter.”

It added that, “Unless the principal officers indicted in the alleged padding of the 2016 budget are promptly prosecuted and any stolen public funds recovered, your government will not be able to stop the alleged ongoing attempts to steal from the 2017 budget. Alleged corruption in the budget process will not just melt away or simply evaporate without addressing the fundamental issue of impunity of perpetrators.”

Calling for more transparency in the budgeting process of the National Assembly, the group said, “Secrecy in the National Assembly has clearly gone beyond the level permitted by law, and apparently served as the incubator for corruption, while depriving the Nigerian people of a much-needed opportunity to cleanse the National Assembly of persistent allegations of corruption.”

It cautioned that, “the budget process will continue unless Nigerians are granted access to inspect the budget process and other activities by the National Assembly. SERAP strongly believes that Nigerians have the right to know what their lawmakers are doing so that they are able to appraise their work and hold them to account.”

SERAP, therefore, asked President Buhari to:

1. Urgently instruct security and anti-corruption agencies to forward to him reports of their investigations into allegations of padding and stealing of some N481 billion from the 2016 budget by some principal officers of the National Assembly, and to direct the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami, SAN, and/or appropriate anti-corruption agencies to without delay commence prosecution of indicted officers;

2. Direct the publication of the report of investigations by security and anti-corruption bodies into the alleged padding of the 2016 budget

3. Urgently halt alleged ongoing attempt by some principal officers of the National Assembly to steal N40 billion of the N100 billion allocated by your government as ‘zonal intervention’ in the 2017 budget;

4. Closely monitor and scrutinise the spending of N131 billion (accrued from increased oil bench mark) allocated for additional non-constituency projects expenditure, to remove the possibility of corruption.

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has pursued the anti-corruption war as a cardinal policy with many high profile arrest of politically exposed persons. In the House of Representatives, a face-off over budget padding led to the suspension of the former Chair, House Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, who accused the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, of manipulating the budget processes.