17th March, 2024
By Ayoride Oluokun/Abuja
A report by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has unearthed the rampant corruption that led to the indefinite suspension of the Managing Director/CEO of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad, and the three executive directors by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
In the report, the EFCC said it began the probe of REA following a petition alleging misappropriation of funds of the agency by the Ahmad-led team.
The petitioner had alleged that there were 37 bank accounts linked to the biometric verification number (BVN) of the suspended REA boss, though he claims on his asset declaration forms with the Code of Conduct Bureau that he has only two accounts; that in June 2023.
It was also alleged in the petition that senior officials of REA stole N300 million using a training programme as a cover while another N1.2 billion was also stolen from the company’s coffers between March and June 2023 through eight staff in the agency’s account department.
Also, a director of REA, Alaba Netufo, the petitioner said has a private company which some contractors of the agency usually paid money suspected to be kickbacks for the directors to. Aside the claims in the petitions, EFCC investigators said in the course of their assignment, they received more information of other large-scale misappropriation of public funds within the agency.
According to the agency, the fresh information include allegation of “gross misappropriation” of N12.4 billion COVID-19 funds disbursed by the federal government to the agency in two tranches of (N6.2 billion) each in 2020 and 2021.
In addition, it was also alleged that contractors executing zonal intervention and capital were being extorted with five per cent of the contract sum being paid in cash as monitoring and evaluation’ charges to the management team of the agency.
Worse still, the investigators were also told how the management used 15 contractors to steal and divert public funds totaling N728.9 million through consultancy jobs which could have been done by staff of the agency being zonal coordinators, project department as well as monitoring and evaluation department in 2023.
The EFCC investigators said their probe confirmed that Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad has (37) bank accounts linked to his biometric verification number but with different dates of birth.
37 bank accounts/five companies
According to the interim report, the 37 bank accounts linked to Ahmad include 14 corporate accounts, 21 personal accounts, and two other accounts in the names of Bilkisu Salihijo.
The report also noted that while the former CEO declared his assets in his Code of Conduct form in 2020, he stated that he has only two bank accounts and did not declared that he owns any factory or business entity.
But the EFCC investigators said their investigation revealed that Ahmad lied as he operates 27 active accounts and he is a director in five companies and shareholder in four companies.
Fraudulent N300m Training Programme
On the allegation of N300m stolen through a fraudulent training Programme, the EFCC investigators said their findings revealed that Cees Assist Resources Limited and Braintask Value Resources Limited, the two companies allegedly engaged for the initiative were owned by one Umaefulem Chibueze.
According to the report, the two companies in their proposals submitted on 6th March, 2023 and 10th of April, 2023 respectively put the total cost of the two-day training at a total of N52,200,000.58. However, the Ahmad led REA management between the 16th June 2023 and 23rd June 2023 made payments totalling (N279,330,197.76) to Cees 7 Assist Resources Limited and Braintask Value Resources Limited in the sums of (N139,562,569.76) and (N139,767,628.00) respectively.
“That the payments were made into the companies’ Access Bank account numbers 0094494027 and 0107644861. That the consultant was overpaid in the sum of (N227,130,197.18).
However, the EFCC investigators said REA Director of Administration and Human Resources Suleiman Garba Bulkwang later asked the contractor to remit the total sum of (N144,523,969.00) to other individuals, some of whom are staff of the agency, as well as some contractors of the agency all of whom were conduits for laundering the funds
“That the consultant heeded the instruction of the Director of Administration and Human Resources and disbursed the (N144,523,969.00) as instructed.
“That the consents of the recipients of the funds in (x) were not sought before they were paid the monies.
“That upon receipt of funds in (xiii), the Director of Administration and Human Resources Suleiman Bulkwang once again contacted the recipients and gave directives for the disbursement of the funds to various other persons thereby, creating a complex trail of transactions in a bid to launder the funds.
“That having disbursed the (N144,523,969.00) as instructed in (x), and having being qualified to get the (N52,200,000.58) for the training exercise which was eventually executed, the consultant still had in custody, the balance of (N82,606,228.18) representing his share of the proceeds of crime.
“That from the proceeds of crime, the consultant made payments totalling (N54,000,000.00) to two real estate companies namely Jaykim Properties and Logistics Enterprises and Urban Shelter for purchase of properties from the loot.
“That the consultant also made payment of (N3,855,000.00) for Bureau de Change transaction.
“That the said consultancy/training contract was not appropriated for in the 2023 Appropriation Act and should never have been considered and paid for.
“That the agency did not carry out any procurement exercise, neither did it obtain requisite Certificate of no Objection from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) prior to its engagement of the Consultant in clear violation of the Public Procurement Act, 2007.
“That the total payments of (N139,562,569.76) and (N139,767,628.00) made to Cees Assist Resources Limited and Braintask Value Resources Limited exceeded the approval threshold of the managing director of the agency, Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad because his payment approval limit for consultancy services in year 2023 was (N99,000,000.00) and below.
“That for payments exceeding over (N99, 000,000.00), the Ministerial Tenders Board approval should have been gotten by the Agency.
“That in order to bring the payments within the threshold of the Managing Director of the agency, monies paid to the consultant were split into (12) tranches in ranges between (N18, 000,000.00) and (N27,000,000.00).
“That ultimately, the sum of (N227,130,197.18) was criminally diverted and laundered out of the (N279,330,197.76) received by the consultant.”
N1.2 billion Fraud
On the N1.2 billion fraud, the EFCC investigators detailed how one Abdullahi Sambo, a staff of the office of the Accountant General of the Federation deployed to REA in 2022 initiated the fraud.
Sambo was first posted to the Audit Department and later posted to the head of the Finance and Accounts Department of the agency.
However, according to the EFCC interim report, upon resumption in the Finance and Accounts Department in March 2023, he informed the staff that monies were going to be paid into their bank accounts, which they have to remit for the purpose of ‘project monitoring’.
The report indicated that consequently, between March and June 2023 at total of N1,481,389,518.11) were fraudulently made by the Director of Finance and Accounts into the bank accounts of eight staff of the department and himself using ridiculous narrations such as ‘’implementation of performance management system and compliance monitoring’’, ‘’ programme for monitoring investment and development of power sector’, International / Local Investment and Development of Power Sector’’ etc.
The payments, the investigators said were made by the Director of Finance and Accounts without necessary approvals, procurement process documents and other substantiating documents as required.
The Director of Finance and Accounts later instructed the staff to return the funds one Usman Kwakwa, who was at that time his Personal Assistant “as other persons being his allies and some other staff of the agency.” The report indicated that the Director of Finance and Accounts further instructed Usman Kwakwa to disburse the collected funds to his friends and allies.
“That upon receipt of the loot, the Director of Finance and Accounts instructed his allies in (ix) to purchase various choice properties and assets being plots of land, houses and a car in his favour.
“That the Director of Finance and Accounts also directed Usman Kwakwa to convert the total sum of (N159,608,464.38) to United States Dollars; this he did using two Bureau De Change Operators namely Laba Ibrahim and Ahmed Musa.
“That Usman Kwakwa also transferred various sums of monies totalling (N115,749,000.00) to some senior staff and management of the agency.
“That the Director of Finance and Accounts benefitted over (N414,346,343.51) from the loot.
“That the remaining balance of the loot remained with the staff who had already disbursed the bulk of the payments as instructed.
“That investigation into the (N1.2) billion naira loot had earlier been carried out by the SIT, ONSA as well as the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offence Commission (ICPC).
“That some of the balance remaining with the recipients were recovered by the two agencies (ICPC and ONSA).
“That all the staff of the Finance and Accounts department involved in the loot have been suspended and dismissed by the agency while the Director of Finance and Account and his Personal Assistant have been returned to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation as they are pool officers.
Misappropriation of N12.4 Billion COVID-19 Funds
The report also indicated how the Ahmad led REA management misappropriate N6.2 billion funds for the government’s economic sustainability plan of ‘’Energy for All’ aimed at mass rural solar power lighting in the country through deliberate violation of the procurement process of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).
According to the report, the REA management refused to heed the directive of the BPP to invite and request financial quotations from various companies for each lot, before awarding the contracts. Instead, the REA management went ahead to award most of the contracts to their choice contractors without inviting other approved contractors for each lot.
“That this approach did not give fair value to the government as financial quotation was not sought and received for consideration from other contractors as approved by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).
The report indicated that REA went ahead to award a total number of 77 contracts and seven consultancy jobs to various contractors under the Energy For All initiative.
But the EFCC investigators said the narration of the contract award as furnished by the agency indicated contract splitting as contracts with same project narration which should have been awarded as a single project, were split in numerous bits.
“That the splitting of the contracts into numerous bits below (N250,000,000.00) allowed for the approval of the Managing Director of the Agency.
“That the approval limit for the Managing Director for ‘works’’ in 2020 and 2021 was (N250,000,000.00) & below as any contract cost higher than that would have warranted Ministerial Tenders Board approval outside the control of the Managing Director of the Agency.
“That payments totalling (N313,111,070.40) were made by the agency to various companies not captured or approved by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).
“That overpayments totalling about (N310,000,000.00) were made to three contractors, which exceeded the contract award amount.
“That five contracts totalling (N583,671,221.67) were furnished as Covid-19 contracts by the agency but Remita platform being the central source of all payments, did not reveal any form of payments to those companies; hence these contracts were used to pad the agency’s submission to the Commission in a bid to camouflage its misappropriation of the said sum.
“That suspicious payments totalling over (N80,000,000.00) were made to various staff of the agency under the guise of fictitious narrations such as ‘survey and data collection’’ and economic sustainability programme’’.
“That for some of the contracts, payment vouchers were not raised while for others, relevant supporting documents were not attached in contravention of the Financial Regulation.
“That six consultants were engaged to serve as Project Owner’s Engineers entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring and evaluating the extent of execution of Covid-19 projects across the country.
“That the reports of the consultants in (xvii) have so far revealed that numerous contracts were under-executed, while some of them were no longer functional at the time of evaluation being just about six months after the supposed execution of the projects thereby indicating the use of inferior or substandard materials for the project execution.
“That sadly, some of the projects were also reported as zero per cent executed i.e they were never executed.
“That so far, projects totalling about N2,000,000,000.00 (two billion) have been reported as not executed across the country.
“That the agency however made full payments to the contractors for projects.
Recovered funds/Properties
The EFCC investigators said for the training programme at total of N30 million has been recovered while four suspects have undertaken to refund the total sum of N201 million representing their share of the looted funds.
They added that effort are being intensified to bring all accomplices of the crime to justice.
“On the looted (N1.2) billion, there is an ongoing reconciliation of monies and properties recovered by the SIT, ONSA and ICPC in order to recover what is left. So far, the SIT, ONSA has recovered the total sum of (N207,013,848.00), a duplex building in Karsana Abuja, and an uncompleted filling station along Kaduna road, Abuja, while the ICPC has so far recovered the total sum of (N38,900,000.00), three landed properties in Kaduna State, another three plots of land in Lafia and one plot of land in Mararaba, Nasarawa State. EFCC operatives said they have also recovered a landed property worth (N46,500,000.00) from one of the 16 suspects.
“Concerning the (N12.4) billion Covid-19 Funds; having carried out extensive investigation of the contract award process vis a vis execution and having engaged with the consultants who evaluated the projects, it has been established there was a questionable award of contracts, and a significant portion of those contracts were either poorly executed or not executed at all, thereby leading to criminal diversion and stealing of public funds. Although computation is ongoing to ascertain the exact amount that was criminally diverted based on poor execution and non-execution of contracts, the Section has so far established that contracts totalling about Two Billion naira (N2,000,000,000.00) were never executed. Additionally, overpayments totalling about (N310,000,000.00) were made to three contractors, which exceeded the contract award amount. The section, therefore, has reasonable grounds to believe that sums totalling about (N6,000,000,000.00) could have been diverted owing to non-execution, under-execution, and poor execution of the contracts. Strategic recovery of all stolen/ criminally diverted will be carried out upon conclusion of ongoing analysis.
To prevent further fraud, the EFCC investigators highlighted vulnerabilities and weaknesses in some government systems and operations which creates opportunities for perpetration of fraud.
“Firstly, most government agencies do not fully implement the directives and recommendations of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) as stated in its ‘’Certificate of No Objection’ which is always secured when Selective Tendering procurement method is to be adopted by the agency. This manifests in the award of contracts by senior and management staff of such agencies to their choice contractors and allies without inviting other competitors as directed by the (BPP) thereby getting better and fairer value for government contracts.
“Strangely, it was also observed that on the GIFMIS platform, there is no provision for upload of documents to substantiate payments made to companies/contractors or individuals and this could create an avenue for commission of fraud by persons entrusted with the responsibility of managing the platform. The above vulnerabilities enable, ease and aid Criminal Diversion and Stealing of public funds; hence the need to implement decisive and relevant actions so as to reduce incidences of fraud significantly.”