KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation said it could not verify ₦33.75 billion cash transfers to 3,295,207 households across 35 states in 2023.
- The 2024 Auditor-General’s report said NTCO vouchers lacked full beneficiary details, and staff blocked access to Remita statements needed to match NSR and NBR names.
- The Auditor-General told the National Programme Manager to face National Assembly Public Accounts Committees, produce evidence or refund the money to the Treasury, as NTCO gave no response.
The Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation (OAuGF) has raised concerns over ₦33.75 billion transferred to more than 3.29 million households under the Federal Government’s social intervention programme, saying auditors could not obtain sufficient records to verify that the payments reached genuine beneficiaries.
According to Punch, the finding was contained in the Auditor-General for the Federation’s 2024 Annual Report on Non-Compliance/Internal Control Weaknesses in Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government.
The audit, which examined transactions carried out by the National Cash Transfer Office in Abuja during the 2023 financial year, raised eight separate queries involving billions of naira and highlighted deficiencies in the agency’s financial controls.
According to the report, ₦33.751 billion was electronically transferred to 3,295,207 households and beneficiaries selected from the National Social Register and enrolled on the National Beneficiary Register across 35 states.
Auditors, however, said the documentation presented for examination was insufficient to establish the identities of those who actually received the money.
The report said payment vouchers accompanying the ₦33.75 billion transactions lacked complete beneficiary information.
More importantly, auditors said they were unable to examine the Remita statement needed to compare recipients of the transfers with names contained in the government’s beneficiary registers.
The report stated, “The paid vouchers for the payments above did not contain the full details of the beneficiaries.
“REMITA statement showing record of the beneficiaries paid as against those listed on the NSR and NBR was not presented for audit. This hindered the authentication of the payments and made it difficult to ascertain whether the beneficiaries who received the funds were genuine.
“All efforts to obtain access to the REMITA statement were obstructed and denied by NTCO accounts staff, thereby frustrating the audit process.”
Consequently, the audit flagged the possibility of payments being made to fictitious or otherwise ineligible beneficiaries, as well as the potential loss of government funds.
The Auditor-General recommended that the National Programme Manager appear before the relevant Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly to account for the expenditure and produce evidence showing that the intended beneficiaries received the funds.
Where satisfactory evidence cannot be provided, the report recommended recovery of the affected amount and its remittance to the Treasury.
It added that the management of the NTCO did not respond to the audit query.
A separate finding questioned ₦36.744 billion paid through 215 vouchers in December 2023 without undergoing the required prepayment audit.
The transactions, which the report identified as SS, IDA and output-based payments, were processed before being examined by the Internal Audit Unit.
“None of the paid vouchers were pre-audited or checked by the Internal Audit as required by extant regulations,” the report stated.
Instead, internal auditors reviewed the transactions after the payments had already been completed.
The Auditor-General said the procedure exposed public funds to possible misapplication or diversion and recommended that officials account for the ₦36.74 billion before the National Assembly.
Auditors also queried 101 transactions worth ₦4.616 billion after the NTCO failed to provide the corresponding paid vouchers for examination.
The payments were made from the agency’s S&S/IDA Cash Book for various expenditures. Without the vouchers, auditors said they could not adequately scrutinise the spending, prompting another recommendation that the money be accounted for or recovered and returned to the Treasury.
Another issue involved funds released to states for the enrolment of beneficiaries without bank accounts. The report said 32 payments totalling about ₦3.09 billion were made for the exercise.
While documents relating to ₦2.74 billion disbursed to 34 states were presented, auditors said they could not account for the remaining ₦350.18 million.
Even for some of the expenditure presented for inspection, the audit found that the supporting vouchers did not sufficiently explain how the money was spent.
Documents such as beneficiary lists, attendance registers, photographs, enrolment reports and acknowledgements from recipients were also missing.
The Auditor-General recommended recovery of the ₦350.18 million if officials could not satisfactorily account for it.
The report also scrutinised ₦393.71 million reportedly returned by nine State Cash Transfer Units after planned enrolment exercises could not be conducted.
According to the NTCO, insecurity, disasters and other circumstances prevented the affected states from carrying out the exercises, leading to the unused funds being returned to the Treasury in 2023.
Auditors, however, said evidence confirming that the money reached the Consolidated Revenue Fund was not produced.
“No documents were presented by NCTO to confirm that the amount refunded… was credited into the CRF,” the report stated.
It said Remita inflow statements and relevant payment slips that could establish the refund were unavailable. The auditors also found no evidence showing that the affected enrolment exercises were subsequently conducted.
The Auditor-General raised another query over ₦280.42 million paid as mobilisation fees to Payment Service Providers contracted to operate platforms for transferring funds to beneficiaries.
The sum represented a 30 per cent advance payment, but auditors said it was released without an Advance Payment Guarantee.
Questions were also raised about the procurement process used to engage the companies.
According to the report, their files contained no records of pre-qualification, bidding or technical and financial evaluation to demonstrate compliance with procurement requirements.
The audit warned of the risk of paying for unexecuted jobs and recommended recovery of the N280.42m.
Auditors also discovered that goods worth ₦89.51 million purchased by the NTCO were not recorded in its store ledger.
The relevant payment vouchers lacked Store Receipt Vouchers and Store Issue Vouchers needed to track the movement of the items.
More significantly, the audit found that the agency’s store ledger had not been updated since 2020.
The final issue concerned ₦17.42 million spent on diesel through cash advances issued to members of staff.
Auditors faulted the arrangement, saying purchases exceeding the ₦200,000 procurement threshold should have gone through the appropriate contract process.
The report said the items purchased could not be physically sighted or traced to the stores.
It also estimated that the procurement approach denied the Federal Government about ₦2.18 million in Value Added Tax and Withholding Tax.
Across all eight findings, the Auditor-General said the management of the National Cash Transfer Office did not respond to the audit queries.
The report consequently called for explanations, supporting documentation and, where officials fail to satisfactorily account for the affected expenditure, recovery of the funds to the Federal Government’s Treasury.
