N76.24bn Cash Transfer Scandal: Audit Faults Federal Office Over Missing Beneficiary Records

….Auditor-General Demands Accountability, Recovery Of Funds

…. Report Flags N33.75bn Payments, N36.74bn Transactions Wthout Prepayment  Audit

….Says Federal Office Failed To Identify Millions Of Beneficiaries Across 35 State

Daud Olatunji

The National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO) has been indicted in an audit report over its failure to provide complete records identifying beneficiaries of N33.75bn reportedly transferred to millions of poor households across 35 states in 2023.

The report also accused the office of denying auditors access to bank statements required to verify the transactions, raising concerns about the transparency and accountability of a federal social protection programme designed to support vulnerable Nigerians.

PLATFORM TIMES gathered that the findings formed part of eight audit queries against the NCTO, involving a combined N76.24bn, contained in the Auditor-General of the Federation’s 2024 Annual Report on Non-compliance and Internal Control Weaknesses in Ministries, Departments and Agencies, covering the 2023 financial year.

According to an analysis of the report by the UDEME project of the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development, the office either failed to respond satisfactorily to the audit queries or did not provide adequate explanations for the transactions examined.

The Auditor-General consequently maintained that the findings remained valid pending the implementation of the recommendations.

The cash transfers were made during the administrations of former President Muhammadu Buhari and President Bola Tinubu, under the supervision of former Ministers of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq and Betta Edu, who served at different periods in 2023.

However, the audit findings do not, by themselves, establish that the funds were stolen or that either former minister personally authorised any irregular transaction.

The NCTO operates the conditional cash transfer component of the National Social Safety Nets Project, a World Bank-financed initiative intended to provide financial assistance to poor households identified through the National Social Register.

N33.75bn payments without verifiable beneficiaries

The Auditor-General’s report stated that the NCTO reported making electronic transfers totalling N33.75bn to approximately 3.29 million households and beneficiaries across 35 states in 2023.

However, the payment vouchers presented for examination did not contain complete beneficiary details, making it difficult for auditors to establish the identities of those who received the money.

The office also failed to provide the Remita statement required to reconcile the reported transfers with the beneficiaries listed on the National Social Register.

The missing records prevented the auditors from authenticating the payments and determining whether the recipients were genuine beneficiaries of the programme.

The report further alleged that NCTO accounts staff obstructed efforts to obtain access to the Remita statement, thereby frustrating the audit process.

The Auditor-General warned that the failure to verify the transactions exposed public funds to possible loss and created the risk that ineligible or fictitious individuals might have received payments.

Consequently, the Auditor-General recommended that the National Programme Manager, Abdullahi Imam, be required to account for the N33.75bn, recover and remit the amount to the Treasury, and submit evidence that the intended beneficiaries received the money to the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly.