On Friday, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Beta Edu, admitted as genuine a December 20, 2023, memo that shows that she requested the Accountant General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, to transfer a public fund of N585.2 million into the private account of an official in her ministry.
The transfer contravenes various sections of Nigeria’s Financial Regulations 2009, which are meant to prevent fraud and other forms of corruption.
According to the minister’s memo, the fund in question was transferred from the National Social Investment Office account and is meant for disbursement to vulnerable people in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Lagos, and Ogun states under the federal government poverty intervention project called Grants for Vulnerable Groups.
Edu said in the memo that the official, Bridget Oniyelu, whose private account with the United Bank of Africa the N585.2 million was paid into, is the project accountant.
The memo has gone viral on X, while Edu has been trending for about two days now on the microblogging platform.
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.
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 fraud allegations now taint the government intervention programme.
Edu’s predecessor, Sadiya Umar-Farouk, is being investigated by the EFCC for alleged fraud.
Edu reacts to leaked memo
Through her media aide, Rasheed Zubair, the minister claimed the memo was leaked as part of a plot to blackmail her.
“It is glaring that the same sponsored disgruntled elements who, in the past few days, have been trying to smear the Honourable Minister, Dr Betta Edu and stain her integrity because she alerted the government to the ongoing N44.8 billion fraud in NSIPA. These elements have been trying to link her to a phantom fraud and are behind this latest misadventure,” a statement on Friday from the minister’s media aide stated.
“The evil motive of the mischief-makers behind the circulation of the memo is well-known and should be ignored.
“Of note is the fact that since assumption of duty about five months ago, the Minister has religiously visited different parts of the country like Borno, Zamfara, Niger, Kogi, Plateau, Nasarawa, FCT, Lagos Cross River, etc., and this is done to ensure she delivers on her mandate, remains focused, unbiased, and committed to duty,” the statement added.
Questions for the minister
The minister’s response to the leaked memo, however, failed to address some pertinent questions, begging for answers:
1. Nigeria’s Financial Regulations 2009 does not empower Minister Beta Edu to originate payment requests directly since she is not the ministry’s accounting officer. By making a permanent secretary the accounting officer of a ministry, the intent of the law is to insulate government business from politics and allow government affairs to run smoothly and professionally on some sets of rules and guidelines with which political officeholders may not be familiar.
2 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 Beta 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.
3. Why would the minister pay such a huge amount of money to a civil servant instead of electronically paying the beneficiaries directly? What is the mechanism in place for accountability?
4. According to Nigeria’s Financial Regulation 2009, only the Minister of Finance is empowered to issue warrants for the disbursement of appropriated funds. Why is the Humanitarian Affairs Minister, Beta Edu, playing that role here?
5. Why is Beta Edu the one initiating a request for payment of public funds when she is not the accounting officer of her ministry or his appointed representative (as stipulated in the financial regulation)?
6. The National Social Investment Office is an agency under the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs with its own distinct leadership. Why is Minister Beta Edu the one signing off on the transfer of funds from the agency’s account without the input of the organisation’s CEO?