The Accountant General of the Federation, AGF, Oluwatoyin Madein has distanced herself and her office from the illegal transfer of N585.2 million to a private account by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Betta Edu.
The Minister has been enmeshed in criticisms for flagrant violation of Nigeria’s Financial Regulations 2009, which emphasises separating public and personal money in government transactions.
According to Nigerian laws, “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 AGF’s office said.
The law further reads, “Any officer who pays public money into a private account is deemed to have done so with fraudulent intention.”
Clearly, the law stipulates this to prevent fraud in government-related business.
But in violation of this popular position of the law, Mrs Edu transferred over half a billion into a private account.
Defending the act, Mrs Edu, through her media aide, Rasheed Zubair, last Friday, said the payment of the N585.2 million into a private account is legal in the country’s civil service even though CN has not been able to establish the section of the law the minister is relying upon.
In his statement, Zubair said, “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,”
Reacting to the matter, the Accountant General of the federation through her Director of Press, Bawa Mokwa, explained that her office does not make payments on behalf of any Ministry, Department or Agencies of government for projects and programmes implementation.
She added that allocations are released to self-accounting MDAs in line with the budget, and such MDAs are responsible for the implementation of their projects and payments for such projects.
She further explained that, although her office received the said request from the Ministry, it did not carry out the payment.
However, the Ministry was told the appropriate steps to take in making such payments in line with the established payment procedure.
“In such situations, payments are usually processed by the affected Ministries as self-accounting entities and no bulk payment is supposed to be made to an individual’s account in the name of the Project Accountant.
“Such payment should be sent to the beneficiaries through their verified bank accounts.”
Dr. Madein, however, insisted on upholding the principles of accountability and transparency in the management of public finances.
