The Nigerian Armed Forces Resettlement Centre (NAFRC) violated public financial regulations by paying N160,537,508 into 10 private accounts between February and September, EQ has found.

This N160 million went into 10 private accounts in 24 transactions within those eight months.

NAFRC is an agency under the Federal Ministry of Defence that serves as a training centre for ex-servicemen to help their transition from military life into civilian life. The agency is located in Oshodi, Lagos.

Findings by EQ also revealed that these payments were made as overhead and miscellaneous expenses for January up until August. This was reflected on GovSpend, a website that mirrors the Open Treasury Portal.

For every month between February and September, more than N10 million was paid into private accounts for overhead and miscellaneous expenses.

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In February, for instance, N10,635,000 was paid to E. S. Okpa and C. A. Ijika for January 2024 overhead and miscellaneous. This was the lowest of the payments made into individual accounts for this purpose.

In May, NAFRC paid N30,500,000 to S. Audu, E. S. Okpa, G. P. Wampana and A. B. Gadzama for what is described as overhead and miscellaneous payments for April.

Screenshots of the payments from GovSpend.

EQ also noticed that while some names such as Lawrence Edward Edet, Ogah Kolawole, I. K. Ogunkuade and Akinkolie Labaran appeared once, other names such as E. S. Okpa, S. Audu, G. P. Wampana, A. B. Gadzama and C. A. Ijika appeared more than twice.

E. S. Okpa, C. A. Ijika, S. Audu, A. B. Gadzama and G. P. Wampana, whose names appeared more than twice in the transactions, received N34,805,000, N16,240,000, N30,599,699, N27,163,905 and N22,478,904 respectively.

EQ also found that the agency paid N80 million for overhead and miscellaneous payments within this period into its sub-account named Nigerian Armed Forces Resettlement Centre – Sub Account. EQ understands that this payment was made within the confines of the law.

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The details of the payments are in the table below:

DATEBENEFICIARYAMOUNTDESCRIPTION20, Feb 2024E. S. OkpaN5,500,000Payment of January 2024 overhead and miscellaneous 20, Feb 2024C. A. IjikaN5,135,000Payment of January 2024 overhead and miscellaneous 11, Mar 2024I. K. OgunkuadeN7,000,000Payment of February 2024 overhead and miscellaneous11, Mar 2024E. S. OkpaN5,500,000Payment of February 2024 overhead and miscellaneous 11, Mar 2024Ogah KolawoleN5,000,000Payment of February 2024 overhead and miscellaneous12, Apr 2024A. B. GadzamaN5,600,000Payment of March 2024 overhead and miscellaneous12, Apr 2024G. P. WampanaN6,000,000Payment of March 2024 overhead and miscellaneous12, Apr 2024E. S. OkpaN5,500,000Payment of March 2024 overhead and miscellaneous09, May 2024S. AuduN8,950,000Payment of April 2024 overhead and miscellaneous09, May 2024E. S. OkpaN5,500,000Payment of April 2024 overhead and miscellaneous09, May 2024G. P. WampanaN9,250,000Payment of April 2024 overhead and miscellaneous09, May 2024A. B. GadzamaN6,800,000Payment of April 2024 overhead and miscellaneous27, May 2024G. P. WampanaN7,228,904Payment of May 2024 overhead and miscellaneous27, May 2024E. S. OkpaN5,500,000Payment of May 2024 overhead and miscellaneous27, May 2024Akinkolie LabaranN5,000,000Payment of May 2024 overhead and miscellaneous27, May 2024A. B. GadzamaN9,525,000Payment of May 2024 overhead and miscellaneous02, Jul 2024E. S. OkpaN12,805,000Payment of June 2024 overhead and miscellaneous02, Jul 2024S. AuduN6,770,000June 2024 overhead and miscellaneous02, Jul 2024A. B. GadzamaN5,238,905June 2024 overhead and miscellaneous 17, Jul 2024S. AuduN9,829,699.17July 2024 overhead and miscellaneous17, Jul 2024C. A. IjikaN5,605,000.00July 2024 overhead and miscellaneous15, Sep 2024C. A. IjikaN5,500,000August 2024 overhead and miscellaneous15, Sep 2024S. AuduN5,000,000August 2024 overhead and miscellaneous15, Sep 2024Lawrence Edward EdetN6,800,000August 2024 overhead and miscellaneousThe NAFRC paid N160 million into 10 private accounts in 24 transactions between February and September.

VIOLATIONS OF THE LAW

These payments are violations of Section 713 of the Nigerian Civil Service Financial Regulation 2009, which reads:

Personal money shall in no circumstances be paid into a government bank account, nor shall any public money be paid into a private bank account. An officer who pays public money into a private account is deemed to have done so with fraudulent intention.

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Ayo Ladipo, the head of Tracka, a civil society organisation that tracks and monitors government expenditures and projects to hold them accountable, told EQ on Wednesday that although these payments were not too much for an agency to pay as miscellaneous and overhead costs, the payments raised some questions.

“How do we know that these funds were utilised the way they were supposed to be utilised? What point of justification do we understand that these spendings will go with the principle of public financial management and will be judiciously expended?” asked Ladipo.

She opined that since these payments were made every month the agency ought to know what exactly consists of their overhead and miscellaneous expenses, whether it was fuel purchase or any other form of purchase.

“If miscellaneous is something that an agency is spending every month, they are line items that can be planned for, maybe by getting into a service agreement with a firm that would provide the services or goods and the process will be within the confines of the law,” Ladipo said.

Another issue raised by Ladipo concerning these payments, which she said is a cover on transparency, was that the payments were made to different people and that the agency ought to respond to questions about what qualifies these individuals to be beneficiaries of the payments.

“There are a lot of questions to be raised for the agency to answer. Who are these people as beneficiaries of the payments? If they are staff members of the agency, why is it different staff for different months and what qualifies them to receive the overhead and miscellaneous payments?” Ladipo told EQ.

Ladipo added that since these payments were made monthly, it meant that the agency had a constant expenditure line item and if this were the case, these payments could be made within the confines of the law by getting into a service agreement with a firm that would provide the services, instead of violating the Nigerian Civil Service Financial Regulation.

EQ emailed NAFRC on Tuesday, but it failed to respond. It had not sent a reply at press time.

This is not the only violation of Section 713 of the Nigerian Civil Service Financial Regulation 2009 reported in the past year.

EQ reported in January that the federal government paid over N900 million into private accounts in October, November and December 2023 through ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
The post NAFRC, an Armed Forces Centre, Violates Financial Regulations by Paying N160m Into 10 Private Accounts appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.