The Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has recovered N16 billion from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in 2020.
ICPC Chairman, Prof. Bolaji Owasanye disclosed this at the virtual meeting of the 2nd “National Summit on Anti-Corruption in the Public Sector’’.
Owasanye said that the money was moved under suspicious circumstances below the threshold that would put it within the purview of the Accountant-General of the Federation.
He said that the ministry moved the money into an offline account in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) where utilisation would be outside the monitoring purview of GIFMIS.
The theme of the summit, organised by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation in collaboration with ICPC to mark Nigeria’s Diamond Jubilee and ICPC’s 20th anniversary, was “Together Against Corruption’’.
According to Owasanye, some of the recovered fund were paid into personal accounts, while others were used for non-official purposes.
“While investigation was ongoing albeit delayed due to COVID-19, the bulk of the money restrained in CBN was released in the peak of the pandemic when the ministry appealed to the commission that it needed to make palliatives to Nigerians upon Presidential directives.
“The commission is tracking the prescribed use of the funds up till now,’’ he said
Owasanye added that the commission discovered that payments were made to agriculture contractors for no job done or over payment for jobs done.
He said some were appropriated to projects owned by private farms of senior civil servant of the ministry.
“One individual from the ministry now deceased, appropriated over N2.5b to himself and cronies.”
