Reps summon Malami, Finance Minister over ‘fraud’ in whistleblower programme

A House of Representatives committee has summoned the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, over the implementation of the whistleblower policy of the Federal Government.

The committee also summoned Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, and “all other stakeholders” involved in the implementation of the policy.

The government officials are to appear before the committee and “provide clarification” on their operation of the whistleblower policy.

The policy, launched in December 2016, encourages Nigerians to disclose information on fraud, bribery, looted government funds, financial misconduct, and any other form of corruption to the ministry of finance.

Chairman of the committee investigating the alleged loss of $2.4 billion in revenue from the illegal sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil in 2015, Mark Gbillah, issued the summon during a public hearing on Tuesday.

Gbillah said the committee received reports that Malami received funds outside the country through the whistleblower policy but did not remit it to the federation account.

The committee chairman also said the minister of finance approved payments to whistleblowers which were not in accordance with what the policy stipulates.

“We are looking at the issue of crude oil export in general from Nigeria for the period under review. And we are looking at the whistleblower revelation and recoveries which the federal government has publicly declared that they have made recoveries from.

“A lot of what we have to investigate with regards to the whistleblower policy is saddled with the ministry of finance and the attorney-general of the federation.

“The responses we have received from the accountant-general office show that the honourable minister of finance has been approving payments to whistleblowers in percentages at variance with what the policy says they should be paid.

“There have been allegations that the attorney-general is being involved also in the receipt of funds from outside the country without these funds being remitted into the federation account in line with the provisions of the constitution.

“And there have been allegations that expenditures of these recoveries have also been done in complete violation of the provision of the constitution,” Gbillah said.

He said the Central Bank of Nigeria wrote to the committee, complaining that some agencies of the government operated their treasury single account without getting approval from the apex bank.

He said the CBN report was “alarming” to this because the constitution stipulates that all revenue accruing to the federation must be paid into the federation account.

“The CBN made a formal response to this committee indicating that under the TSA policy, agencies operate their TSA account and make expenditures from these accounts without recourse to the CBN.

“So, if recoveries are being made from whistleblower revelation, we expect these monies to be paid into the account of the federation as required by law and if there is any expenditure to be made, it should come through the national assembly,” he said.