Accounting for COVID-19 funds
— Editorial of The Punch Newspaper.
APPARENTLY discomfited by the persistent Freedom of Information requests made by two not-for-profit organisations, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project and Connected Development, the Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, has jolted everyone after disclosing that the Federal Government spent N30.5 billion in four months to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The funds spent, Idris explained, represented 84 per cent of the N36.3 billion COVID-19 donations received from April to July 2020. That terse statement in response to the FoI inquiries by the NGOs is contemptuous of the right of the public to demand accountability. The people are entitled to details of how government spends funds they and organisations contributed to fight the pandemic. Among the contributors were 115 ordinary Nigerians who individually donated between N1 and N100.
The two civil society groups had asked the AGF to give a breakdown of how the money was spent, details of the number of Nigerians who directly or indirectly have benefited from the spending, and provide details on the plans to spend the balance of N5.9 billion in the COVID-19 Eradication Support Accounts.
Earlier, in two separate FoI requests sent to the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, and the Director-General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Chikwe Ihekweazu, SERAP had expressed concern over what it termed the “lack of transparency in the use of the funds and resources being mobilised to combat coronavirus,” in the country. It noted, “We are concerned that lack of transparency in the use of the funds and resources to combat COVID-19 would lead to diversion or mismanagement of resources, unnecessarily cost lives, and result in serious damage to public health in the country.”
Emblematic of how the Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) regime treats citizens’ call for accountability and probity in public financial management, the two requests were ignored by those concerned. This forced the group to subsequently approach the Federal High Court, Abuja, seeking “an order for leave to apply for judicial review and an order of mandamus to direct and compel the Minister of Health and the NCDC to publish details of the funds and resources from federal and state governments, and the private sector, as well as details of how the funds and resources have so far been spent and used to combat COVID-19.” A report by another NGO, CivicHive of BudgIT, claimed that seven government Ministries, Departments and Agencies spent a total sum of N3.03 billion on COVID-19 contracts. The group said, “Most of the MDAs involved do not make public their procurement process;” saying, “We believe this would have been competitive if all projects were made open to all.” In one mindboggling revelation, the group noted that the Ministry of Health spent N37.06 million on 1,808 pieces of regular face masks. Its conclusion, however, that “with the way things are, it is nearly impossible to seek transparency and accountability,” is a cause for concern and should jolt the lethargic anti-corruption agencies into action.
Therefore, the half-hearted response of the AGF is unacceptable in a constitutional democracy more so when the funds being spent were not appropriated from the government treasury but sourced from sundry individuals’ donations. Indiscriminately throwing up figures of the amount spent from the COVID-19 funds without outlining and detailing the beneficiaries as demanded, how and where they were spent, falls short of the standards required in ensuring accountability and transparency in public finance for a regime that lays claim to integrity.
The Federal Government should investigate the allegations of the groups and bring possible violators of the extant procurement laws to book to serve as a deterrent to others. There should be no repeat of the “grass-cutting” saga involving a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and others who were accused of misusing funds meant for the Internally Displaced Persons.
Nigerians need to know what items, and in what quantity the government procured using the donated funds considering the avalanche of donations of equipment and materials from countries and international organisations the government received on their behalf. For instance, the United States donated over 200 ventilators to support government’s efforts against the COVID-19 pandemic. Similarly, the European Union Delegation and the United Nations in Nigeria handed over 270 cubic meters of medical supplies to the Federal Government amounting to over $22 million for the COVID-19 response, approved by the EU and endorsed by the Nigeria/One-UN COVID-19 Basket Fund Board. The shipment consisted of thousands of Personal Protective Equipment and hundreds of other medical supplies that would aid the provision of adequate healthcare for those affected by the virus.
Besides, there is a need for the government and its relevant agencies to ensure they are guided by the primacy of value for money in the spending of the funds, especially given Nigeria’s characteristic poor use of donor funds. It is not enough to spend the funds; there must be good value for the money spent. In 2016, a report by the Geneva-based Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria said the body was suspending aid to Nigeria’s AIDS agency, National Agency for the Control of AIDS, over evidence that $3.8 million was stolen by its workers and consultants. Seven government workers and three consultants were said to have stolen the money over five years between 2010 and 2014. The Fund noted, “The fraud continued because the National Agency for the Control of AIDS did not have proper audits.”