Buhari Settles Down To Work, Calls For Ministries, Agencies Bank Account Balances

As President Muhammadu Buhari settles

down to work, the Presidency has called

for the Bank Account Balances of all

federal Ministries, Departments and

Agencies, MDAs.

The directive to all Chief Executive

Officers and Accounting Officers of

MDAs was contained in a circular Ref

No: TRY A4 & B4/2015 /OAGF/CAD/026/V

.1/254 and dated 1 June, 2015.

It was issued by former Accountant-

General of the Federation, Mr. Jonah

Otunla, before he retired from service,

last week.

The circular was titled “Urgent Request

for Account Balances of Ministries,

Departments, and Agencies, in the

Central Bank and Deposit Banks, as at

May 29, 2015”.

According to the circular, all accounts of

each MDA, including accounts held in

foreign banks must be included.

Accounts of the nation’s Diplomatic

Missions were also affected.

It contained a subtle warning that there

would be consequences for any officer

who failed to disclose any account or

distort information on any account such

as doctoring it as it would be considered

illegal by the presidency.

It said in part, “To enable the Office of

the Accountant-General of the

Federation (OAGF) properly brief the

new Administration, you are hereby

requested to submit urgently, the list

and balances of ALL accounts

maintained and operated by your

Ministry, Department or Agency (MDA)

in CBN and DMBs as at 29th May, 2015 .

Such accounts should include Offshore,

Investment and Deposit Accounts.”

The MDAs were directed to provide the

information in both hard and soft

copies.

According to the directive, the

information to be provided included:

the Account Name, Account Number,

Balance as at May 29, 2015, Account

Status ( Active or Dormant) and remarks

which should include signatories to the

each account.

The move considered strategic to

harnessing all available cash in an

economy faced with dwindling revenue,

especially from its primary source, oil,

was one of the earliest steps of the new

administration towards blocking all

avenues of leakage.

Sources said that the submission of all

bank accounts of MDAs would be the

first step into President Buhari

administrations audit of the federal

governments financial management,

especially by the last administration

which had been accused of some huge

payments to contractors and consultants

in its last months.

It was also learnt that the Buhari

administration would put in place stiff

financial regulations which would make

it difficult for MDAs, especially, extra-

ministerial departments and agencies

that collect funds from the public in

their service delivery to spend such

money at will.

The current regulation, allows

government organizations which are not

categorized as “Revenue Agencies” to

spend what they earn and return the

balance to the treasury at the end of

each fiscal year.

However, Finance Ministry sources said

that only few agencies adhere to that

regulation, as most of them try to

exhaust their funds at the end of the

year or return what they like to the

treasury, as “unspent fund”, while

keeping the balance in their accounts.