Reps, AG query use of N199bn ecological funds
By Chiawo Nwankwo, Abuja PUNCH | Mar.30.2009

The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee and the Auditor-General of the Federation are battling with the Ecological Funds Office to account for how it spent N146.594bn since 2002.

Accruals to the EFO as at March 16, 2009 is N199.3bn and it had remained a guarded secret since the fund was established, despite spirited efforts of the last two National Assemblies to scrutinise it.

The accruals , derived from 1.46 per cent of the Federation Account, is domiciled in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, but managed by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.

Bids to subject the accruals to scrutiny had given rise to three letters from the House Committee between February and March 16, amid growing national outcry that the Federal Government was not doing enough to solve erosion and desertification problems, especially in the South-East and the North.

A financial statement on its operations forwarded to the committee showed a rash of withdrawals, grants and interventions outside areas for which the EFO was set up. Ecological Funds, like the disbanded Petroleum Technology Development Funds, has served as slush funds for governors and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.

This came to the limelight when former governor of Plateau State, Chief Joshua Dariye, disclosed in the heat of his trial by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission that he doled out N90m from the state’ share of the funds to the South-West PDP for the 2003 elections. According to the EFO records, N250m was released to Plateau State in August 2004, to “attend to urgent emergency issues as approved by Mr. President” as a bridging loan.

It claimed that it gave N200m as loan to the Presidential Research and Communication Unit on September 11, 2002. While Edo State, which it gave N500m facility on September 17, 2002, repaid the last tranch of N83.33m on March 17, 2003, there is no evidence of the repayment of the N200m ‘loan’ by the Presidential Research unit.

Analysis of the EFO accounts ledger evinced 303 financial entries, out of which 153 were receipts. Also, the record showed that managers of the funds gave N200m to Ogun State Government on April 22, 2006 for memorial monument for the victims of the Bellview plane crash. Other transactions include an overpayment of N1bn in respect of N4bn project for the provision of engineering infrastructure for Kubwa/Karshi satellite towns in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

The releases are as follows: N2bn to FCDA on March 23, 2007; N1bn to FCDA on August 18, 2007; and N2bn on December 12, 2007. The last two payments had the same entries except difference in figures. The record stated that N4bn for the third and final payments was “released to FCDA for the provision of engineering infrastructure to Kubwa/Karshi satellite towns.”

A total of N750m was said to have been “released for the development of Abuja downtown mall” but the recipient was not stated. The record also showed that N7.5bn was granted as a loan to the Nigerian Air Force through the Ministry of Defence on March 23, 2007 for some unspecified projects. The EFO also spent N10m on abattoir in Bida , Niger State, on April 3, 2003 and gave N50m to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture for tree planting in Abuja in July 2003.

Apart from other funds released for construction works under the Federal Ministry of Works, the Funds’ records indicated that “direct payments” of N500m and N590m were made to the ministry on August 7, 2004 and September 27, 2004 respectively. According to it, the payments are for the Warri-Benin Road dualisation and work on the Ibagwa Bridge in Akwa Ibom State.

The EFO also paid N350m to the Federal Ministry of Transport for the decongestion of traffic on federal roads, leading to and within Lagos complexes; N500m for the repair of burnt bridges in Lagos; and N2.5bn for the sand filling of Lagos Bar Beach in 2003. The recent repair of the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos took N760.6m from the EFO and N1.8bn for clean up and land remediation of oil impacted sites at Warri refinery on January 28, 2008.

A total of N25m was said to have been released to maintain botanical garden at the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, while N800m was used for resurfacing of the Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, on January 14, 2003. The EFO spent N242m on the control of locust invasion from Niger Republic. It gave N926.3m to the Presidential Committee on resettlement of those displaced in Bakassi, following the International Court of Justice ruling, which ceded the area to Cameroun.

The Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation in its 2003 report on the Federation Account which is being considered by the committee was critical on Ecological Funds management. It said, “This is one of the Funds in the custody of the Accountant-General of the Federation for which statement of affairs at the end of each fiscal year has never been reflected in the annual financial statements, especially in the statement of assets and liabilities.”

According to the EFO, 245 projects have been awarded, many of which are at various stages of completion. It was gathered that a Permanent Secretary in the Fund, Dr. I. Okubo, appeared before the committee last Thursday but was asked to be back to his office with his team, when the committee discovered that the audited report for 2003 was not presented.

Riled by this development, the committee members vowed to visit some of the 245 projects it claimed to have undertaken. On states’ statutory receipts since inception, the EFO in a letter dated March 24 and signed by Dr. Tunji Bolade, on behalf of Okubo , said it was not in a position to furnish such information.

It stated, “This is consequent to the Supreme Court judgment in 2002 in the case instituted by some state governments in 2000. By virtue of this judgment, the Derivation and Ecological fund became shared directly among the three tiers of government alongside statutory allocation from the Federation Account.”

Some of NEMA’s statutory allocations are as follows: N766.7m, 1.8bn, N785m, N545.8m, N638.2m, N606.8m and N661.8m.

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