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The Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris has clarified that all recovered public funds are lodged into the Treasury Single Account (TSA) at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and not in any commercial bank accounts that yields interest.
Idris’s statement was in reaction to a report credited to the News Agency of Nigeria (NANS), alleging that the suspended acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu was unable to account for the interest generated from N550 billion cash recovered from 2015 to 2020.
According to NANS, the allegation was contained in the report of a presidential probe panel which previously investigated Magu titled ‘Final Report of the Presidential Investigation Committee on the EFCC Federal Government Recovered Assets and Finances from May 2015 to May 2020’ obtained by the Federal Government-owned News Agency of Nigeria.
Part of the report submitted that the suspended EFCC chairman failed “to report on the interest on actual lodgements”, which according to the panel “clearly establishes that the interest element of over N550bn has been re-looted relating to the period under review”.
“This is an apparent case of manipulation of data in a very brazen and unprofessional manner and this has greatly eroded the public confidence in the anti-corruption efforts,” it added.
The committee which was led by Alhaji Abdullahi Ibrahim, said it was of the view that the EFCC could not be said to have fully accounted for cash recoveries made by it, noting that there were discrepancies between what the embattled chairman reported and the lodgements the commission made.
It added, “It must be pointed out that the discrepancy of more than N31bn does not include interest accrued in this account since it was opened.
“It therefore cast serious doubt on the credibility of the figures and means that substantial amount of money has not been accurately accounted for.”
But the Accountant General of the Federation told Daily Trust in an interview on Sunday that no recovered fund should be kept in an interest yielding account in any commercial bank as that will be a violation of the TSA policy.
“The TSA policy means no public funds should be kept in a commercial bank account, or in a deposit money bank,” he said. “As far as we know, to the best of our knowledge and ability, we have not left any public money in any commercial bank.”
“However, we are not a recovery agency. We are not EFCC and we are not ICPC. So, if these agencies do their work and give us the money, certainly those money will be in a TSA account at the CBN,” he added.
It could however not be established whether all the monies recovered by Magu were kept with the CBN or part of it was kept with the commercial banks.
However, according to some lawyers and civil society activists, in the event that Magu was found wanting of depositing money in any commercial bank with a view to generating revenue for himself, he should be prosecuted.
Explaining the modalities for keeping recovered monies, Idris stated, “These monies are in different categories. There is what we call permanent forfeiture – the money which is permanently recovered.
“There are monies that are under litigation and there are also monies under temporary forfeiture, which means the court has given a temporary forfeiture of the money pending the confirmation of certain things for the court to grant permanent forfeiture.
“These categories of money are kept with the CBN under the different TSA accounts as the circumstances warrant and depending on the nature of the money as I have narrated.
“As far as the CBN is concerned, it doesn’t give anybody interest on those accounts. The government doesn’t collect interest on TSA accounts at the CBN. That is the best I know.”
When asked if he is aware whether some recovered loots by the EFCC were in custody of some commercial banks and they generated interests, the Accountant General said, “I don’t know.”
“But monies that were recovered, whether temporary recovery, or permanent recovery or under litigation, are kept in TSA accounts at the CBN and the government doesn’t collect interest on that,” he added.
The Punch reports that the report of the previous constituted committee, led by Ibrahim “became the basis for the setting up of the Ayo Salami-led panel now probing Magu.
MERIDIAN SPY reported on Saturday, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu stated that the investigation of the suspended boss of the anti-graft agency was necessitated by a series of documented allegations levelled against him and several other members of his staff.
“Hence, an investigative panel was constituted in compliance with the extant laws governing the convening of such a body,” Shehu added.
