Nigerian states lose billions to fake accounts - Reports

Abuja - Strong indications emerged, yesterday,
that some state governments in the country
lose money amounting to billions of naira as a
result of fake accounts being operated, just as
efforts to block leakages have yielded results
in some states.
Speaking, yesterday, at the State Peer Review
Mechanism, SPRM, organised by the Nigeria
Governors' Forum, NGF, National Programme
Manager of the State Partnership for Accountability,
Responsiveness and Capability, SPARC, Dr. Joe Abah,
said this blockage led to Jigawa, Kano and Enugu
State governments recovering over N8.1 billion
lodged in some secret bank accounts.
He, however, said despite the challenges facing the
country, the state governors were making silent
progress in addressing issues confronting their
states.
Abah who noted that one of the measures adopted
by these governors was to close down dozens of bank
accounts which were conduit pipes used to siphon
revenue belonging to the states to private pockets,
added: "By reducing the number of bank accounts in
Jigawa from 615 to 105, the Jigawa State
government recovered N2 billion which it was able to
put back into its budget.
"Kano reduced its own accounts from 756 to 92 and
thus recovered N4.5 billion; Enugu reduced its
number of accounts from 100 to 10 and was able to
put back N1.6 billion into its treasury."
Abah, who explained further that the return of
unspent funds in Jigawa at the end of 2009 yielded
N9.3billion which went into the state 2010 budget,
said: "These are in addition to savings from removing
ghost workers, improving due process in
procurement, reducing the size of state debts and
ensuring that gains from the debt relief granted
Nigeria in 2005 by the Paris Club of Creditors are
used to improve maternal and child health, fight
malaria and improve water supply in various parts of
the country."
Abah explained that the SPRM which was officially
launched on May 18, 2011 by the Governors Forum
was a system aimed at reviewing each other's
performance and to at the end of the day design
ways of learning good practices from one another.
He said: "We have issues with our governors but
when all 36 of them come together like this for the
common good, let us at least give them the benefit of
the doubt rather than cause the 'infant mortality' of
any good initiative through negative and uninformed
reporting."
Also speaking, a guest lecturer, Prof. Adele Jinadu, of
the University of Lagos who noted that the SPRM was
marshalled out after the African Peer Review
Mechanism, said: "SPRM should, therefore, not be
misconstrued as a score card to rate states, praising
some and condemning others, reward leaders with
leadership award or to attract investors.
Responding, the NGF Director General, Mr. Ashishana
Okauru, explained that the training workshop was
organised as part of efforts of the NGF to involve the
media and ensure that they have deeper
understanding of the SPRM process.
Via: Ascology
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