After Chief of Staff visited MDAs

Can government ministries, departments, and agencies show value for the funds allocated to them? Are they even configured to do so? Can appropriate sanctions be meted out to them when they violate laid-down financial regulations? What measures can curb the alleged illegal actions taken in MDAs? These are vital questions against the backdrop of the recent visits to some agencies by Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, as well as the latest oversight work that lawmakers carried out on some MDAs. There are three issues to be interrogated regarding the visits by the CoS to agencies under the presidency.

One is the visit itself, the others are the comments the CoS made. In addition were the observations made by lawmakers when some agencies sat before them lately. I address these together with my initial questions. I should point it out that it’s worth noting when high government officials take the extra step, go out of their way to ensure government machinery works. Someone might argue that this is part of the job of officials to ensure effective governance. But it doesn’t always happen in our clime. We don’t have many officials here who take the kind of step the CoS took by visiting the agencies under the presidency. In fact, his visit was the first of such, and I think it’s worth commending.

Doing the extra to ensure we function in this nation hasn’t been a strong point of most officials, and this is responsible for everyone doing things for themselves and their pockets. Many are careful not to rock the boat too. So when we get a CoS who goes to check what is happening in agencies under the presidency, it’s worth noting the benefits therefrom. Such agencies know they get attention at the highest level so they must be at their best. When agencies carry out their mandates, the positive effects on the system and Nigerians in particular aren’t going to be few. Was I impressed the CoS took the step he did? I was.

In the course of his visits, the CoS emphasised the concern of the presidency to ensure government agencies actually perform.  He notes that in any country, resources are limited and, for the presidency, priority becomes important. As such, ”In 2025 we are not going to budget in a vacuum. We will budget based on needs assessment,” he said. Even at that, he says asking the right questions of MDAs is crucial: Where are we so far? What have the agencies done? How have they measured up to their mandates and how important are their mandates in terms of the vision of this administration and the Renewed Hope Agenda? The CoS asked these questions in relation to the need to reorganise the already large MDAs many of which duplicate one another’s functions. A lot of them are not properly funded, he also added.

At about the time the CoS went on these visits, members of the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts sat and said government agencies must show value for money allocated to them. They insisted that infractions would no longer be tolerated. The committee also frowned at extra-budgetary spending by the agencies in contravention of financial regulations. Agencies also didn’t remit Internally Generated Revenue. Lawmakers demanded proper accounting records from them as well. These same calls by lawmakers were made in the past. Where are we regarding them? Each day, lawmakers roll out names of MDAs that don’t honour invitations to appear before them. They mention names of Director-Generals and CEOs who engage in extra-budgetary spending in contravention of financial regulations. There are many DGs accused of not making IGR remittances. Others don’t have the proper records that lawmakers ask for, and the records that some do have are a mess.

Examples of the running battle lawmakers have with MDAs were on display during a recent sitting of the Public Account Committee. The committee addressed the non-remittance of IGR by the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba. The committee queried the management of the hospital for engaging in extra-budgetary spending and its refusal to adhere to financial regulations; thus contravening the laws in this regard. The committee also queried the Lagos University Teaching Hospital over the non-remittance of IGR, the discrepancy in Remita payments amounting to over N2 billion, and extra-budgetary spending amounting to N150.3 billion in the period under review.

It’s worth noting that the Executive Branch itself has warned MDAs against illegal practices. In December 2023, the Ministry of Finance directed MDAs to remit 100 per cent of their IGR to the Sub-Recurrent Account which was a sub-component of the Consolidated Revenue Fund. The directive is to improve revenue generation, fiscal discipline, accountability and transparency in the management of government financial resources and prevent waste and inefficiencies. Yet in August 2024, the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Reps accused MDAs of failing to remit, but not one institution or individual was prosecuted. Instead, more MDAs were accused of committing more acts of illegality. To me, these raise the debate as to the reasons such is the case. It raises issues as to who to hold responsible in cases of illegal acts committed (the institution or individuals in the institution).

The last question is important considering that we know the mentality here about what belongs to the government. The mentality is that workers aren’t supposed to overreach themselves when it comes to government work. Government work is nobody’s work. You come, you go, and another comes. If the institution fails, nobody fails; it’s a government institution. That’s the general attitude here. In that kind of situation, how do lawmakers and the Executive branch expect one thing and get it from MDAs? It’ll be hard to get changes to happen in MDAs if lawmakers continue to use the language they do: “Government agencies must show value for money allocated to them from public resources”; infractions will no longer be tolerated; agencies caught committing illegal acts will be sanctioned. After such words are uttered by lawmakers I can guess that workers in those institutions walk away from the National Assembly with relaxed smiles on their faces.

For me, the issue of who to hold responsible for infractions raises the question I once raised on this page – what makes an institution strong? Is it the inanimate institution – the buildings, the name – or the people who work in the institution? I believe it’s the people. No institution becomes strong except those who work within it make it strong. I cited in the past an institution such as the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation that became dreaded because those working in it did their job with a sense of commitment and patriotism. Since 1908 when the FBI was established, the generation of dedicated people who worked in it gave the bureau its reputation and thereby made it a strong institution. This for me, where Nigeria is concerned, calls attention to the need to hold individuals responsible for acts of illegality committed in MDAs.

This isn’t happening at the moment, otherwise no DG would ignore lawmakers by failing to bring forward the record of their financial activity. The DG who knows they’ll be sacked when funds that aren’t appropriated are expended won’t try it. Individual workers who know their jobs are on the line for appending their signature to illegal actions will be wary of doing so. At this time, workers and management staff within MDAs don’t see this happening so they can’t be bothered by those words from lawmakers.

This brings me back to the visits by the CoS to agencies. I think he should follow up on this by convincing the president to establish a mechanism that continually measures the performance of MDAs along with the plan to merge or scrap some of them. This ensures relevant actions are taken in real time to curb wastage as well as ensure performance.  Such a mechanism can be located in the Office of the CoS to give the president a clear view of its activity as well as ensure that prompt and necessary actions are taken. And above this, illegal activity carried out by individuals in MDAs should be met with swift sanctions.