Idris Ahmed
30 June 2009
Abuja — Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) that refuse to implement their budgets would now face prosecution, the Attorney General of Federation (AGF) has said. Mike Aoondoakaa made the threat yesterday in Abuja at a national procurement forum on "Fighting Corruption" through good procurement practices, organised by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP). Federal Government said last had said that only 20 percent of this year's budget was implemented in the first quarter by the MDAs.
Capital Warrants of N200.370 billion were released to them on January 9. The Director- General of the Budget Office, Bright Okogu attributed the non-performance of the budget to lack of utilization of capital allocations by the MDAs. Aoondoakaa said: "Government has put in place mechanism to prosecute any MDA that deliberately refuses to implement the budget. The interest of government is to make people access the fund by following due process. "Those MDAs which did not follow due process to access their funds and make the fund dormant would also be prosecuted." He said circulars have been sent to parastatals who are determined to violate the law that punishment for such violation could be severe, saying section 58 of the BPP Act prescribes 5 to 10 years for offender. The AGF said if people obey the rule of law, government will be less interested in prosecution. "Government is interested in justice. A just society is to create the environment where people obey the law.
Procurement and tender process is the grandmother of corruption in Nigeria", he said. Aoondoakaa said section 20 of the BPP Act that place blame on the head of parastatal if anything goes wrong is anti-human and therefore must be amended. "I cannot prosecute someone who did not commit any crime", he said. Finance Minister Mansur Muktar said the image and reputation of the country would be enhanced if corruption is dealt with. "We are creating a nucleus for fighting corruption. Institution building takes time.
We are talking about something that cut across the society", the Minister said. The Diretor-General of BPP, Emeka Ezeh said 90 percent of corruption in Nigeria is through the award and execution of Government contracts, saying those in charge of promoting the law are also the ones undermining it. He said: "The Bureau has this unfortunate culture to contend with in dealing with some MDAs and official. "Some people are critical of the procurement Act mainly because the old order which benefits them no longer exist. Some have said that the bureaucracy delays budget implementation and consider this a basis for non-implementation of budget."
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