Auditor-General’s Report: HEDA Pins Corruption On Civil Servants In MDAs — Calls For Focus On States, LGAs

Oru Leonard

The Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre), has described the indictment of several Federal Government Ministries,
Departments, and Agencies (MDAS) of financial mismanagement in the 2016
Auditor-General’s Annual Report as depressing and an embarrassment
unworthy of public consumption.
HEDA’s Executive Director, Olanrewaju Suraju made this known while
reacting to a petition the organization sent to the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) seeking a probe of N92billion
allegedly misappropriated by Federal Government MDAs.

Speaking on PUBLIC CONSCIENCE on RADIO, the anti-corruption radio
program produced by the Progressive Impact Organization for Community
Development, PRIMORG, on Wednesday in Abuja, Suraju decried the role of
some civil servants in the worsening corruption in Nigeria’s public
sector, stressing that politicians nowadays can barely succeed with
corrupt practices without the help of civil servants.

“This Auditor-General’s report is less of politicians but more of civil
servants and this is where we have the greatest challenge in terms of
dealing with corruption in public offices.

“The civil servants are almost worse than the politicians that we on
daily basis criticize and quite a number of the civil servants are even
richer than the politicians and it is almost an attestation to the fact
that politicians can barely succeed with corrupt practices without the
help of civil servants.

“Do an assessment of the lifestyles of quite a number of the civil
servants and you would see that the majority are actually living above
their legitimate earnings, it is a very huge gap between their
legitimate earnings and the level of wealth that you trace with quite a
number of the civil servants.”

Suraju also disclosed that HEDA’s aim is to encourage the general public
to take interest in the Auditor-General’s Annual report, not just at the
federal level but down to the states and local government, adding that
HEDA was already looking forward to getting the media, civil society
organizations, and citizens involved in beaming the searchlight on audit
reports of states and local governments.

On his part, a Tax Consultant, Taslim Anibaba lauded HEDA’s efforts in
seeing that MDAs and public servants that misappropriated public funds
are penalized while describing the laissez-faire attitude of
anti-corruption agencies in Nigeria in responding to investigative
corruption reports as a tragedy.
Public Conscience is a syndicated weekly anti-corruption radio program
used by PRIMORG to draw government and citizens’ attention to corruption
and integrity issues in Nigeria.
The program is supported by the MacArthur Foundation.

(PRIMORG Media)