EXCLUSIVE: How OAGF Undermines Buhari’s Fight Against Corruption In The Federal Civil Service

There are strong indications that the effort by the Government of Muhammadu Buhari to curb corruption in the Nigerian civil service may be far from being realised judging by the conduct and action of accountants and auditors in the federal civil service.

A discreet investigation revealed that the Office of the Accountant General of Federation headed by Mr Ahmed Idris has been working as an obstacle and hurdle in the fight against corruption in the civil service by the President.

Some of the federal accountants and internal auditors who spoke on the issue, but under the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak on the subject matter, revealed that the problem of corruption would have been reduced if the Kano State-born Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Idris has been able to monitor his staff for them to ensure that there is strict compliance to financial regulations and treasury circulars of the Federal Government of Nigeria who are posted as accountants and internal audit staff to various ministries, departments and agencies.

 “I must confess, Mr Idris has been trying but his effort is not enough. The system is corrupt. How can one explain the process of posting and redeploying accounts and internal audit staff which has been riddled with sharp practices? Postings to MDAs are allegedly being done on request and how much you can put on the table and at the same time how much you can return back to the officers in charge.

“The most annoying aspect of it is that some staff have overstayed in a ministry for more than 10 to 20 years when the rule of the government says an officer could only stay on a post for only four years. We have many accounts and internal audit staff becoming gods at their duty posts because they have not been redeployed or posted out for many years.

“The essence of redeploying officers at least four years in a post is to curb corruption and avoid an officer operating without control and abusing office.

“So tell me how stealing, corruption and misappropriation of billions of public funds will not be persistent in those MDAs as reported in some places such as the Police Pension Funds, SDGs, Education and others,” one of the staff said.

Further investigation by our reporters revealed that OAGF does not have a comprehensive database for the federal government accountants under its supervision, while some staff are fond of evading capturing to OAGF database to escape being posted out of their present place of duties, even some refused to go for promotion interview in other to hold tight to their place of duties.

“I can tell you that thing has become worse under present dispensation because the Directors of Finance and Accounts are given power and opportunity to take any of their staff to their new postings and post out those they meet on ground. This has helped facilitated immense conspiracy and syndicated corruption in the Nigerian government operations.

“It is also noticeable that some people in a particular section of the country were enjoying being posted to some juicy MDAs to the detriment of others,” one of the responders said.

“Despite all this, I think all hope is not because what can stop these anomalies is for the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Idris, to live ready to his responsibilities and key into President Muhammadu Buhari’s zero tolerance for corruption if not, the fight against graft by the president will continue to be a mirage.”