The anti-corruption dragnet of the Buhari administration seems to have ensnared one of the highly influential top civil servants who serves as the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology for alleged acts of fraud, profligacy, squandermania, and other financial and regulation infractions dating back to his days as the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.
The eye-popping allegations, if true, portray the embattled Permanent Secretary more as a supra-legal emperor rather than a lawful accounting officer of a Ministry under the Federal Government.
The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, reeled out the devastating allegations in a leaked memorandum dated 11 May, 2020, querying the beleaguered Sokoto-born Permanent Secretary.
The query with reference number, HCSF/PSO/AOD/P.030/5B entitled: “Allegations of acts of serious misconduct in your former post of Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development: Preliminary letter/query”, paints a canvass of corruption, so widespread and brazen that it could not conceivably have been perpetrated by anyone who has the faintest regard for President Buhari’s anti-corruption mantra.
If the content of the query is anything to go by, it appears that President Buhari, himself, has had a personal taste of the lip service paid to his vaunted anti-corruption crusade by one of his own top functionaries and has personally directed the Head of the Civil Service, Dr. Yemi-Esan to look into the matter and issue the query to the alleged light-fingered outlaw of a Permanent Secretary.
The memorandum of query shows on its face that it is issued on the order of the President, Muhammadu Buhari after the President had been apprised of the escapades of the Permanent Secretary.
Provisions of the Civil Service rules, PSR 030401 and 030402, cited by the Head of Service in the memorandum of query issued by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, categorize the enumerated allegations against the Permanent Secretary as acts of serious misconduct which Civil sanctions include dismissal from the Service.
As at press time, the period of 72 hours given to the hitherto high-flying Permanent Secretary to respond to the allegations has since expired. There are indications that Dr. Bello Mohammed has responded and is on a frantic mode and on frenetic rounds of intervention, seeking to avert what looks like a disgraceful terminus of his flamboyant career.
Excerpts of the trenchant query include: “The attention of Mr. President has been drawn to the acts of serious misconduct against you in your former post as the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on which he has given further directive.
“Specifically, it was alleged that:
(a) In spite of the budgetary release of the N98,405,763,678.68 in 2018 (which represents 99.44bn of 2018 appropriation), you did not take necessary action to pay the eligible contractors which led to the Ministry having an outstanding contractual liability in the sum of N48.429,543,895.722.
“(b) Under your leadership as the Accounting Officer, the Ministry utilised the entire 2019 first quarter release of N7,737,208,135.18 to pay for the 2018 contracts that were fully funded in 2018, which constitutes virement without authority:
“(c) As Accounting Officer, you oversaw a transaction for the purchase of a building for the use of the Ministry at the sum of N7,044,746,264.06 without the conduct of the mandatory statutory structural and mechanical integrity tests and prior approval of the FCDA Public Building Department. The building was eventually found to be an uncompleted carcass, requiring billions of naira to complete and make safe for occupation;
“(f) Under your watch as the Accounting Officer, the Ministry procured seven deep drilling rigs for borehole at an average cost of N300,000,000.00 without recourse to the Federal Executive Council;
“(e) And in April, 2019, you gave out the seven rigs procured at over NI.3 billion to some individuals under fraudulent arrangements, without the approval of the Minister; and one of the rigs linked to you is yet to be returned despite several written reminders; and
“(f) You misapplied the intervention funds approved for the purchase of strategic grains and the establishment of the Rural Grazing Area Settlements in violation of extent Financial Regulations; two of such misapplications are:
“i. The use of N2,026,838,775.25 to pay contractors and execute programmes from the funds released for emergency procurement of strategic grains which is unrelated to the purpose of the funds.
“ii. The use of N3,527,300,419.06 for the payment of questionable contracts awarded under the 2018 appropriation, from the rural grazing area settlement scheme which is not related to the purpose of the funds.”
This sharp turn of fortunes into the dark alley of graft and damnation reeks richly of episodic irony, signaling the disoriented state of the Buhari administration’s mouthful battles against past corruption without the presence of mind to be watchful of the conduct and posture of its own functionaries.
It would be recalled that when the Buhari administration had problems of financial irregularities in the Federal Ministry of Health, it was this same Federal Ministry of Agriculture that was assigned by the President through the late Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari to oversee the procurement processes of the then distrusted Ministry of Health.
These admission and revelation now that the said Ministry of Agriculture was itself a bazaar of mind-bogging irregularities, drives home the helplessness of the Buhari Administration to self-regulate and practice what it preaches to the public.
At a time when open jest and outright disgust are being directed at many of the social intervention programmes of the Buhari Administration, especially the miraculous and contradictory ability to share billions of naira without established methods, public records or accountability as well as the insistence of feeding school children during school closures, how the query to Dr. Mohammed Bello is concluded might be a pointer to what direction the Buhari Administration chooses to face in the anti-corruption fight, looking back at past administrations or looking forward; starting from its own disciples.
