Aideloje Ojo
15 July 2008
Minna — The Niger State Judicial Commission of Inquiry probing the award of contracts by the past administration has frowned at the inability of four Chief Accountants of the state to produce vouchers or other financial documentary evidence of how over N300 million proceeds from the sale of government properties were spent by that regime.
The Chairman of the commission, Justice Mohammed Mayaki, at the weekend expressed disappointment that Alhaji Muhammed Danjuma, Alhaji Atahiru Nagogo, Alhaji Ibrahim Jibrin Sheik and Alhaji Ibrahim Ladan who variously served as Chief Accountants of the state Ministry of Works between 2000 and 2007 did not keep records of the use of the proceeds.
They were summoned to the commission as witnesses in a case on the sale of government properties by the past regime handled by the Works Ministry and as chief accountants, they were believed to be in custody of the monies realized from the disposal of the government properties.
The properties sold by the regime, it was learnt, included government quarters and some of its liaison offices.
However, being led in evidence by government lawyers, the accountants admitted receiving various amounts of money as proceeds from the sale of the properties but claimed that vouchers were not prepared in releasing the proceeds as government expenditure on oral demand by commissioners served as executive order.
In his evidence, Muhammed Danjuma presently the bursar of College of Arts and Arabic Studies Minna told the commission that he served in the Works Ministry from April 2000 to February 2002 during which about N64, 849,799.00 was realized from the sale of government properties.
He said that government had spent about N58, 120,711.15 of the money accruable from the sale as at February 2002, adding that about N6, 729, 088. 45 were left in the account which the ministry operated with the Intercity Bank PLC now Unity Bank before he got posted out of the ministry.
Danjuma who earlier denied knowledge of any other account operated for the purpose, admitted that he was aware of a transaction that took place on the 7th August 200l in which about N10 million was transferred from the account to another account of the Bank of the North on the directives of the state governor.
Still in quest of facts about how the over N58 million realized during his period was spent, Danjuma's attention was drawn to another activity of his office on 13/8/02 indicating transfer of about N20 million from the proceeds to a fixed account and the transfer of a certain amount to a new account with the Standard Trust Bank (STB) on the 19/11/02. This stark revelation apparently put Danjuma off his track as he quickly remembered the issue of the fixed account explaining that it was an in house arrangement endorsed by the then commissioner of the ministry to generate revenue. He however did not know how much interest was accruable from the deal. Danjuma again fell off his feet when asked to produce the vouchers or other records that showed how the money from the sale of properties was spent. "There were no signed vouchers in that respect my lord, I only recorded the money released in a paper. I did not have the records. I gave them back to the commissioner to enable him prepare a memoranda to the executive governor on the utilization of the money. Most of the directives were passed directly and not through written document", he said. The bursar agreed with the commission that it was not appropriate to give out money without vouchers or records of the releases made. "It was not appropriate but that was what was obtainable at that time as it was just a matter of call me the accountant and verbal directives given. You cannot say no to such executive orders unless you want to leave the job", he insisted.
Now the man that took over from Danjuma only stayed for two months before he was kicked out of the ministry apparently because he was not playing ball with such executive directives that undermined financial regulations. Atahiru Nagogo was posted to the ministry on 1/3/02 and got redeployed on 31/5/02. Within this period, Nagogo said that he was aware of over six million naira balance in the said account with Intercity Bank now Unity Bank and that the money collected amounted to N8, 310, 168. 50. He said that the total amount of money collected stood at N15, 039, 256, 95 while the sum of N7, 204, 775, 75 was spent under executive directives made orally. Again, Nagogo now the Chief Internal Auditor of the state ministry of agriculture could not provide vouchers for the money he released as the chief accountant of the works ministry. He also claimed not to be aware of the existence of other bank accounts not even the fixed deposit account.
Perhaps it was chief accountant Ibrahim Jibril Sheik that received more drilling from the chairman and other members of the commission in respect of the matter. For over three hours the commission members and Sheik exchanged banters on his activities at the ministry between the period of June 2002 and July 2004. This, it was learnt, was due to two reasons. First was that Danjuma had earlier in his evidence claimed that most of his records on the expenditure of the proceeds of the sale of the government properties were kept with Skeik as the chief internal auditor who was on hajj to Saudi Arabia at the time of his transfer. Sheik vehemently denied this claim insisting that internal auditors are not under chief accountants and therefore Danjuma could not had kept such vital documents in his care. Secondly that sheik prepared hand over note that elaborated on the various accounts and the movement of monies that were of concern to the commission but had refused to honour previous invitations by the commission to testify on the matter.
Sheik compounded the situation when on arrival at the witness box, he claimed ignorant of the existence of other bank accounts operated by the ministry in respect of the sale of government properties apart from the Intercity Bank account. Apparently not aware that his predecessors had attested to the fact that other accounts existed, Shiek maintained a hard posture which prompted the commission to open the handover notes and refreshed his memory on some daily transactions made during his period. But before this stage, Sheik had told the commission that he met opening balance of N7, 854, 451. 05 in the Intercity Bank account on assumption of office in 2002. According to him, N91,535, 356.90 was collected as proceeds during his tenure at the ministry amounting to a total of N99,370, 018.23 out which the ministry spent N97, 552, 992. 21. He insisted that the amount expended was for official activities through the commissioner of works from the governor. He however said that he was not in possession of any of the directives from the governor since such directives were passed to him verbally through the commissioner.
The handover notes among the four chief accountants during the period under review which was earlier admitted as exhibit by the commission, according to Justice Mayaki revealed that some huge amounts were released by Sheik for which there were no vouchers. The list of such expenditure, according to chairman, included one N69,000,000.00, N20, 000,000.00 and another N32,000, 000.00. He said that the commission was particularly concerned about the N32, 000, 000. 00 which was claimed to have been released to a construction company as part payment for the rehabilitation of Suleja township roads when the roads were awarded to the same contractor in another contract that ran into billions of naira. The commission wondered why government should resort to the proceeds of the sale of government properties to pay the contractor when there was budgetary provision for the rehabilitation of Suleja roads.
Still on the sale of government properties, the commission called another witness, Muhammed Ladan, who was at the ministry between 2004 and 2007. He told the commission that he met a balance of N815, 042.00 on the account while he collected the sum of N133, 654, 343.85 and over N91million released. Ladan however brought a new dimension into the investigation of the matter, when he revealed that the ministry released N20 million to the state Agricultural Development Project (ADP) as proceeds from the sale of its staff quarters in Minna and Bida areas of the state. The question to which the commission sought answer was why should the works ministry handle the sale of ADP quarters when the project was an entity of its own with a chief accountant to handle its accounts? In answering the question, Ladan said that the ministry was mandated to handle the deal by the governor through a memo through the commis-sioner on the deplorable condition of the quarters. He explained that the ADP was making payment through his office to the Intercity Bank account but was allowed to come any time for withdrawal when it was ready to utilize the money for building new houses.
In computing the expenditure from the proceeds of the sale of government properties between 2004 and 2007, the commission discovered that the total money released during the period amounted to N116 million. The commission therefore insisted that the chief accountant produce all payment vouchers and any other financial document to prove the release made during his stay at the works ministry. "We want to see the payment vouchers totalling N116 million. We want you to also produce evidence of refund of money to those whose allocations were revoked which you said amounted to about two million naira", the commission insisted.
Ladan was also ordered by the commission to prepare an update of the interest accrued to all the accounts including that of the fixed deposit into which about N20 million was deposited. Not impressed by the professional misconduct exhibited by the chief accountants in handling the proceeds of the sale of government properties and their attempt to cover up, Justice Mayaki said that the civil servants were not on trial and that they should feel comfortable in providing accurate information and evidences that would assist the commission in the successful investigation of cases. He expressed concern over the uncooperative attitude of some of the civil servants invited as witnesses to the commission adding that some of them were even refusing to appear before the commission. Justice Mayaki warned that the commission will not hesitate to order the arrest of anybody that runs away from its summon before it.
Mayaki also renewed the commission's warrant of arrest on two former permanent secretaries of the state, Alhaji Bala Guna and Alhaji Marafa Katuka. He urged the police to intensify efforts to arrest the duo who have gone into hiding to evade the summons of the commission to testify on several matters in which they are involved. He said that the testimonies of the former permanent secretaries were vital to the commission and that they must be apprehended and brought to the commission. They are to witness in no fewer than five cases according to the order list issued for every sitting day of the commission.
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