Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari and Mr Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources to use their leadership positions “to urgently probe how N116 million was spent by your Ministry to shop for biros, letterhead and toners in 2015, and to disclose the quantity spent on an equivalent items between 2016 and 2020, and if there’s evidence of misuse of public funds, refer the interest appropriate anti-corruption agencies for prosecution.”
The Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation had last Thursday before the Senate Public Accounts Committee revealed that officials of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources spent N116m to shop for biros, letterhead and toners in one year, and alleged “contravention of the general public Procurement Act 2017 by the Permanent Secretary.”
In the letter dated 12 December 2020 and signed by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organization said: “The Nigerian Constitution of 1999 [as amended], the UN Convention against Corruption and African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption require the govt to make sure that Nigeria’s resources are used effectively and efficiently, and during a manner according to the general public interest.”
SERAP said: “An effective and efficient ministry need to keep careful track of how it spends public money, and put in situ a system to eliminate corruption, mismanagement, unnecessary, inefficient, or unreasonable expenditures.”
According to SERAP: “Transparency and openness within the spending by your Ministry would make sure the charitable trust , efficient, effective and competent delivery of public goods and services. Openness within the spending by your Ministry also will strengthen the country’s democracy and promote efficiency and integrity in government.”
The letter copied to Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN, read in part: “Any allegations of misuse of public funds may constitute serious misconduct that impairs the efficiency of your Ministry, and undermines public confidence within the ability of ministries, departments and agencies [MDAs] to supply essential public goods and services to Nigerians.”
“SERAP cares that the allegations by the Office of the Auditor-General raises serious violations of anti-corruption legislation, the Nigerian Constitution and international anti-corruption standards.”
“Public officials and MDAs should act and take decisions on the spending of public funds in an open, transparent and accountable manner, and submit themselves to the scrutiny necessary to make sure this.”
“A democratic government accountable to the people must be as transparent as possible and must not withhold information for self-serving reasons or just to avoid embarrassment.”
“We would therefore be grateful if you’d indicate the measures being taken to probe the spending of N116m on biros, letterhead and toners in 2015, and disclose the entire amount spent on an equivalent items between 2016 and 2020 within 14 days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter.”
“If we’ve not heard from you by then on the steps being taken during this direction, the Registered Trustees of SERAP shall take all appropriate legal actions to compel your Ministry to implement these recommendations within the interest of transparency and accountability.”
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“The Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources features a legal obligation to conduct an efficient investigation into any allegations of breach of anti-corruption legislation and international standards, including those concerning the spending by the Ministry on biros, letterhead and toners between 2015 and 2020.”
“Our requests are according to the government’s repeated promise of transparency, and keep with the wants of the Nigerian Constitution, national anti-corruption legislation, Freedom of data Act, and Nigeria’s international obligations, including under the UN Convention against Corruption, and therefore the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption.”
“According to our information, the 2015 report of the Auditor General for the Federation shows that officials of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources spent N116m to shop for biros, letterhead and toners in one year.”
“The breakdown of the expenditure showed that the ministry spent N14.5m to get Schneider biros, N46m to print the ministry’s letterhead and N56m to acquire toner for its photocopy machines.”
“According to the Office of the Auditor-General, ‘the contract for the availability of Schneider biros worth N14.5m was split into smaller packages of but N5m each and was awarded to four different companies so as to bypass the permanent secretary’s approval threshold of N5m.’”
“’The contract for the printing of the ministry’s letterhead worth N46m was also split and awarded to 11 different contractors. The contract for the availability of toners worth N56m was split and awarded to seven different contractors.’”
“The Office of the Auditor-General has also reportedly told the Senate Public Accounts Committee that the permanent secretary has failed and/or refused to “explain this contravention of the general public Procurement Act 2007.”
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