THE Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment under Mr Niyi Adebayo failed to account for some COVID-19 funds, according to the 2020 Auditor-General’s Report.

The audit report alleged that N430 million was released to the ministry as COVID-19 funds in the 2020 financial year but only N146.74 million was spent.

The remaining N283.86 million, being the unspent balance, was not accounted for, the report said. Mr Adebayo, a lawyer, was appointed Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment in August 2019 and left in May 2023.

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According to the report, the ministry, in failing to account for the N283.86 million COVID-19 funds, violated Paragraph 111 of Financial Regulations which says that “the accounting officer shall (a) be responsible for the safeguarding of public funds and the regularity and propriety of expenditure under his control.”

The report further alleged that the action equally violated Paragraph 112 (1) of the Financial Regulations which states that the functions of the accounting officer shall include: (f) ensuring accurate collection and accounting for all public monies received and collected…”

The ministry under Mr Adebayo did not respond to queries by the auditor-general regarding why it failed to account for the COVID-19 funds.

The auditor-general pointed out that the anomalies could be attributed to weaknesses in the internal control system at the ministry.

Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Nasir Sani-Gwarzo

The report recommended that the then Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, account to the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly for the sum of N283.259 million, which was the unspent balance of COVID-19 funds allocated to the ministry.

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The permanent secretary must also forward evidence of remittance to the National Assembly committee, otherwise sanctions prescribed in paragraphs 3115 and 3129 of the Financial Regulations be applied.

N558m discrepancy

The report also accused the ministry of failing to account for a N558.206 million discrepancy between the revenue reported and the actual collections. What that means that the ministry under-reported its internally-generated revenue (IGR) but was found out during the audit report.

The report said that this had led to loss and diversion of government revenue, and a violation of Paragraph 219 of the Financial Regulations, which mandates the accounting officer responsible for revenue collection to ensure that “all collections for which he is responsible are correctly and promptly brought to account.”

The ministry did not provide any response to this when the auditor-general served it queries.

The auditor-general recommended that the permanent secretary account for N588.206 million – being the revenue discrepancy – while also remitting the money to the treasury. He must also forward evidence of remittance to the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly, otherwise sanctions prescribed in paragraphs 3112 and 3129 of the Financial Regulations be applied.

Non-remittance of tax

The ministry was also accused of deducting N9.9 million value added tax (VAT) and withholding tax from a N69 million office rent without evidence of remittance to the authorities. The auditor-general recommended that the tax be remitted to the appropriate authorities.

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The ministry was also accused of paying 7 staff members the sum of N7.81 million in 2019 as estacode and for airfare during a foreign trip without evidence of approval by Head of Service of the Federation.

In its defense, the ministry said the money was for an executive secretary’s trip to Abidjan for Mo Ibrahim Governance weekend, insisting that the ministry was not aware of any circular requiring its “board chairman to seek approval for his foreign trips.”