In 2020, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) published its first financial audit in 43 years. This came despite sections of the NEITI Act mandating the periodic audit of extractive industries in Nigeria.
The quasi-private, state-owned enterprise had released a full audit of its 2018 financial statement digitally. But by then, significant revenue-sapping damage had already been done to the Nigerian economy.
In 2014 for instance, an audit by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation revealed that NNPC had withheld $16 million in oil revenue. Dataphyte, a data insight and analytics company, also reported in 2018 that five subsidiaries of the NNPCL withheld about N30 billion in tax revenues from the Nigerian government.
This is not an isolated incident. Nigeria and its agencies do keep documents — which ought to be publicly available — hidden away from the public or delayed from publication.
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FISCAL SIDE: MISSING BUDGET IMPLEMENTATION REPORTS
At the time of this report, the most recent budget implementation report published on the Budget Office website was from the second quarter of 2023. This is despite legislation, through the Fiscal Responsibility Act, mandating quarterly publication of these documents, at least thirty days after the end of each quarter.
Here is what section (50) of the FRA says about the reports:
“The Minister of Finance, through the Budget Office of the Federation, shall monitor and evaluate the implementation of the Annual Budget, assess the attainment of fiscal targets, and report thereon on a quarterly basis to the Fiscal Responsibility Council and the Joint Finance Committee of the National Assembly.The Minister of Finance shall cause the report prepared pursuant to subsection (1) of this section to be published in the mass and electronic media and on the Ministry of Finance website, not later than 30 days after the end of each quarter.”
At press time, the third-quarter report was seven months overdue, and the ministry responsible has already eaten into the time allocated for publishing the fourth-quarter and full-year reports.
Interestingly, reports from previous fiscal years up to 2023 are documented and available on the webpage, suggesting prior awareness and compliance.
In 2019, the Federal Government launched the Open Treasury Portal (OTP), designed for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to report daily transactions and facilitate public financial monitoring.
The portal also houses budget performance figures and other financial statements. The portal has however remained inaccessible to the public since December 2024.
Snapshot of the BIR page from the Budget Office website
Although the OTP doesn’t provide field-specific implementation details, its absence, alongside the missing implementation reports, leaves journalists, citizens and observers unable to track government spending.
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OVERDUE AUDIT REPORTS
The financial audit of the 2021 fiscal year, published in November 2024, flagged major law violations by Nigerian agencies.
For instance, FIJ reported how ministries, departments and agencies were indicted for spending N110 billion without budgetary appropriation.
From the same audit report, FIJ also reported how the NNPCL was flagged for deducting N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation.
If the Fiscal Responsibility Act is anything to go by, the audit report should have been ready by July 2020. Section 49 of the act mandates the Federal Government to publish its audited accounts no later than six months after the financial year ends:
“The Federal Government shall publish their audited accounts not later than six months following the end of the financial year. Federal Government shall, not later than two years following the commencement of this Act and thereafter, not later than 7 months following the end of each financial year, consolidate and publish in the mass media its audited accounts for the previous year.”
Going by antecedents, oversight bodies including the legislature and civil society organisations would act on the audit report to demand accountability from these agencies. In most of the agencies, new officials have been put at the helm of affairs since 2021.
PROCUREMENT OBSCURITY
The Public Procurement Act (2007) mandates the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) to publish details of major contracts in its Procurement Journal. These journals are to be archived electronically for public access.
Here is what Section 5(f) of the BPP Act says about documentation:
The Bureau shall
(g)Publish the details of major contracts in the procurement journal; (f)Publish paper and electronic editions of the procurement journal and maintain an archival system for the procurement journal.
However, the most recent federal contracts record available on the BPP website dates back to 2016. Procurement journals from MDAs stopped in 2017, certificates of objection in 2022, and procurement plans in 2018.
Most Recent Contract List Published in 2016
FIJ has in the past relied on publicly available procurement documents to monitor the integrity of government contracts.
For instance, in May 2024, FIJ reported irregularities in contracts awarded after a Federal Executive Council meeting, including the award of contracts to companies ineligible under the Procurement Act.
But what happens when procurement records are inconsistent or entirely unavailable? Transparency becomes unattainable, and citizens are left in the dark.
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DEBT FIGURES IN THE SHADOWS
Conversations about debt and sustainability have taken centre stage in Nigeria, especially since President Tinubu assumed office.
By law, the Debt Management Office (DMO) is tasked with overseeing Nigeria’s debt affairs. One of its key responsibilities, as outlined in the DMO Act, is to “collect, collate, and disseminate information, data, and forecasts on debt management, with the approval of the Board”.
In line with this mandate, the DMO has, in the past published quarterly updates on the debt stock of both the Federal Government and the states consistently. This routine transparency, however, seems to have hit a pause, at least since 2024.
The most recent update on Nigeria’s debt profile was released in June 2024. At first glance, this gap in data might not seem alarming. But its implications are significant.
In October 2024, for example, Tinubu claimed that Nigeria had fully cleared its Ways and Means debt. A fact-check by FIJ revealed otherwise.
The debt hadn’t been cleared, it had simply been restructured and given an extended payment timeline. This independent verification was made possible only because the DMO had previously published relevant information about the country’s debt.
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THE BIGGER PICTURE
Beyond the examples listed earlier, Nigeria has many case studies for why independently verifiable data are important to its democracy.
In June 2024, FIJ checked the National Orientation Agency for falsely claiming Nigeria was producing 1.7 million barrels of oil daily. Similarly, FIJ fact-checked Vice President Kashim Shettima’s misleading claims about oil revenue in October.
In November, the NNPCL tried to convince Nigerians that oil production had surpassed the target in the 2024-2026 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework.
With data from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (which shares monthly oil stats), FIJ identified the disinformation in the NNPCL’s statement.
Also in 2024, FIJ reported on how lawmakers were not transparent with their salaries when they pledged half each to Nigerians. Although the data used was not up to date, it was easily extrapolated from the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission (RMFAC).
The post How FG Undermines Democracy With Concealed, Delayed Data appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.