Nigeria’s Auditor-General for the Federation has raised concerns over the Federal Government’s disbursement of N33.75 billion in cash transfers to more than 3.29 million vulnerable households in 2023.
According to The PUNCH, the audit report said the government could not provide sufficient documentation to establish that the money was received by genuine beneficiaries.
The finding was contained in the Auditor-General’s 2024 Annual Report on Non-Compliance and Internal Control Weaknesses in Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
According to the report, N33.751 billion was electronically transferred to 3,295,207 households and beneficiaries across 35 states after they were selected from the National Social Register and enrolled in the National Beneficiary Register.
However, auditors said the payment vouchers did not contain complete beneficiary details, while the Remita statement needed to reconcile the recipients with the official beneficiary registers was not made available.
The report stated, “The paid vouchers for the payments above did not contain the full details of the beneficiaries.”
It further noted that the absence of the Remita records prevented auditors from verifying whether the funds were actually paid to eligible beneficiaries.
The audit team also alleged that attempts to obtain the relevant payment records were frustrated by accounts officials of the National Cash Transfer Office.
It said, “All efforts to obtain access to the REMITA statement were obstructed and denied by NTCO accounts staff, thereby frustrating the audit process.”
The Auditor-General warned that the lack of supporting records created the risk of public funds being lost or paid to ineligible or fictitious beneficiaries.
The report recommended that the National Programme Manager appear before the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly to account for the N33.75 billion and provide evidence that the beneficiaries received the funds.
It also advised that any amount that could not be satisfactorily accounted for should be recovered and returned to the Treasury.
The audit report also questioned N36.74 billion in payments made without pre-payment audit checks.
It said 215 payment vouchers involving transactions under SS, IDA and output-based programmes in December 2023 were processed without the required internal audit review.
According to the report, “None of the paid vouchers were pre-audited or checked by the Internal Audit as required by extant regulations.”
The auditors said the failure to conduct the checks created a risk of misapplication and diversion of public funds and recommended that the money be accounted for before the National Assembly.
Another N4.62 billion was also queried after 101 payments were made from the office’s S&S/IDA Cash Book without the relevant paid vouchers being presented for examination.
The audit further identified N350.18 million in disbursements to state coordinators that could not be fully substantiated.
Although N3.09 billion was reportedly released to states for the enrolment of unbanked beneficiaries, documents covering only N2.74 billion were presented to the auditors.
The report said supporting documents, including beneficiary lists, photographs, attendance registers, enrolment reports and payment acknowledgements, were missing from the vouchers.
The auditors consequently recommended the recovery of the N350.18 million if it could not be accounted for.
The report also raised questions over N393.71 million reportedly returned by nine State Cash Transfer Units after they were unable to conduct enrolment exercises because of insecurity, disasters and other challenges.
According to the auditors, the National Cash Transfer Office failed to provide evidence that the refunded money was credited to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
Another N280.42 million advance payment to payment service providers was questioned because it was made without an Advance Payment Guarantee.
The auditors also said they found no sufficient evidence that due process was followed in selecting the service providers.
The report additionally queried N89.51 million worth of store items which were allegedly not entered in the office’s store ledger.
It said the relevant Store Receipt Vouchers and Store Issue Vouchers were not attached to the payment documents, while the store ledger had not been updated since 2020.
A further N17.42 million spent on diesel was also questioned after the money was provided to staff as cash advances instead of being subjected to the required procurement process.
The auditors estimated that the procurement approach resulted in about N2.18 million in lost Value Added Tax and Withholding Tax revenue.
The Auditor-General noted that the management of the National Cash Transfer Office failed to respond to all eight audit queries.
The findings come amid continued scrutiny of Nigeria’s social intervention programmes and the management of funds meant to support poor and vulnerable households.
The Federal Government’s cash transfer programme has been partly financed through an $800 million World Bank facility approved in 2021 to strengthen Nigeria’s social safety-net system.
The programme initially targeted monthly payments of N5,000 to selected households but was later revised by the Federal Government to N25,000 monthly for three months as part of efforts to cushion the impact of economic reforms and rising living costs.
