A payment description is a brief explanation of what a client is paying for. Such a description makes easier, the auditing and related accounting process. Anything short becomes a red flag for likely fraud or fictitious payment.
The Office of the Accountant General has continued to neglect proper description of payments issued to contractors and government agencies. An analysis of the open treasury data by Dataphyte fears the negligence may defeat this transparency and accountability initiative of the Federal Government.
A Dataphyte analysis of data on the Open Treasury Portal has shown ₦173 Billion worth of payments between January and April 2020 had no description. These payments are cumulative records of 1,353 payments to various ministries, parastatals, security agencies, educational institutes, among others.
A breakdown of the figures showed that the zero description payments in January and February 2020 were ₦5.16 billion and ₦67.76 billion respectively. In March and April 2020, the FG also paid ₦85.2 billion and ₦15.22 billion without any description.
Most of the payments were made to contractors under the National Rural Electrification Agency, National Directorate of Employment, Nigerian Navy, Federal Fire Service, Federal Ministry of Youth & Sports Development, National Inland Waterways Authority. Also, payments to contractors of Nigerian Airforce, Nigerian Defence Academy, Nigeria Correctional Service, and Federal Ministry of Niger Delta. Similarly, the University of Maiduguri, Presidential Air Fleets (State House), SMEDAN Headquarters among others.
Lack of description is becoming a pattern
In an earlier report on the payment records of 2019, Dataphyte reported over nine thousand of the daily transactions between January and November 2019 have either ambiguous or no description. The value of these transactions was ₦510.23 billion. This was 16 percent of the total payments done by the government in the same period. According to the report, the total payments between January and November 2019 was 3.15 trillion naira (₦3,151,968,581,253).
The report stressed that the zero description makes it difficult to determine the purpose of the expenditure. Also, it would require further Freedom of Information (FOI) request to find out about the payments. Moreover, at a time when the global economy is witnessing a downturn as a result of coronavirus, accountability and transparency should be the government’s utmost priority.
At different forums, experts have also called on proper management of government funds. To show commitment, Nigeria must continue to strengthen transparency in order to record some level of development. Transparency International (TI) ranked Nigeria 144 out of 180 countries on the Corruption Perception Index. The rank was based on a lack of compliance in public procurement and budget transparency.
Ms. Ifeoma Onyebuchi, the Program Director of PPDC said open treasury data when mixed with open contracting and open budget data transforms the accountability landscape for various stakeholders. This includes the CSOs, media, and even anti-corruption agencies of government, she stressed.