Economic, rather than political reasons are to be blamed for the hurricane that befell the 26 Directors-General and Heads of parastatals yesterday. The Nation reports that no fewer than 10 of them may be handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for investigation.
Reports of large-scale fraud in their agencies prompted President Muhammadu Buhari opted to give some of the chief executives the push, with one accused of spending N200 billion on last year’s Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) presidential campaign.
A source told the newspaper that some of the former chief executives also awarded contracts to cronies, giving the case of how a DG was implicated in a N68 billion fraud and other illegal expenditures and loans allegedly secured without proper approval.
It was gathered that agencies under the EFCC or the ICPC’s searchlight include National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), National Women Development Centre (NWDC); Industrial Training Fund (ITF); Nigerian Investment Promotion Council; Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) and Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSIT), among others.
The source also claimed that a former female chief executive was alleged to have donated N700million to the PDP’s presidential campaign in January 2015; furnishing of an office at N800million which donor agencies can supply at no cost and the construction of a store at N240million instead of N40million.
A DG of a sensitive agency was alleged to have hidden over N15billion in a secret account in violation of the extant regulations of Treasury Single Account (TSA). Another of the affected DGs presided over an agency which was generating about N9billion internally but as at the time he was sacked, he left more than N6billion debts for the agency.
In another instance, one of the heads of the media agencies could not account for all the advertisement cash raked in by his medium during the 2015 campaign. Instead, about N5million was recorded as revenue from adverts during the 2015 polls.
Besides, the award of some contracts before the inauguration of President Buhari led to the sack of some of DGs.