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CSJ Awards five Government Ministries for High Performance in Audit Assessment Index

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The Centre for Social Justice organized an award event on the 17^th of December 2020. The event featured various Federal Government Agencies and other Civil Society Organisations. The event, which was hosted by Dr. Amaechi Anakwe of Africa Independent Television, started around 2PM at Chelsea Hotel Central Business District Abuja.

The event – the climax of CSJ’s programme on improving the effectiveness of the federal audit process and practice in Nigeria – sought to encourage effective auditing within government circles by awarding the best performers in the assessment. The performances of MDAs were assessed using an Audit Assessment Index developed by the Centre for Social Justice and validated by several professionals, CSO groups and federal government agencies.

The Audit Assessment Index questionnaire was developed following the category of contents of the federal audit reports – (a) issues of access to books, accounts, records and information; (b) extra budgetary and unauthorized expenditure (c) failure in revenue generation and remittances by MDAS; (d) public procurement and disposal infractions; (e) unretired loans, advances and violations of e-payment policy; (f) monetary value of documented infractions; and (g) unauthorised deductions from the federation account. The AAI has seven (7) parts; the first six (6) were for the 16 MDAs headquarters while the remaining one was for the federal revenue generating agencies. A weighted average method and a secondary data source (federal audit reports) were used. The assessment scope was for four (4) years: 2014-2017

Evidence from the access to records indicator as used in the AAI reveals that the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, followed by Federal Ministries of Aviation, Environment, Education and Water Resources all provided sufficient level of access to financial records and accounts within the period in focus. This is because they crossed the required threshold of 75% irrespective of their scores. The Federal Ministries of Labour and Employment, Youth and Sports, and Works and Housing provided moderate level of access to financial records and books while the others provided less than sufficient access as they fell below the 75% threshold. Under this sub-index, the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology scored the highest point (90%) while the Federal Ministry of Health scored the least point (40%).

Evidence from the Audit Assessment Index showed that selected MDAs performed decently as regards “extra budgetary and unauthorised expenditure” as they all obtained scores above the 75% threshold with the exception of Federal Ministry of Works and Housing which obtained the threshold score of 75%. The Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel obtained the highest score (100%) for this sub-index.

The “failure in revenue generation and remittances” focuses on issues relating to non-remittance and under-remittance of revenues and unspent funds respectively; failure to deduct or under-deduct the various types of taxes; failure to remit the deducted taxes to the treasury; and on issues of improper accounting practices and documentation of government revenues. Evidence from the AAI shows that the Federal Ministries of Agriculture, Education, Science and Technology all had good performances under this sub-index as they obtained the maximum score of 100%; every other assessed MDAs got at least 75% with the exception of the Federal Ministries of Health (70%), Mines and Steel (70%), and Works and Housing (65%) which had less than moderate performance.

On “public procurement and disposal infractions” sub-index, evidence shows that nearly all the selected MDAs headquarters crossed the threshold score of 75% with the Federal Ministry of Education leading at the top with a score of 100%; then followed by the Federal Ministries of Mines and Steel (96.88%), Transport (96.88%), Science and Technology (93.75%), Power (93.75%), Aviation (90.63%), Youth and Sports (90.63%) and Agriculture (87.50%) to complete the top five under this sub-index. Three MDAs (Trade and Investment, Health and Environment) obtained the score of 75%.

Evidence from the “unretired loans and advances” indicator as used in the AAI reveals that seven (7) out of the sixteen selected MDAs had good performance as they crossed the 75% threshold with the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel (100%) leading the top performers under this sub-index. The Ministry is followed by the Federal Ministries of Environment, Science and Technology, and Youth and Sports (all of which obtained 91.67%). In third place were four MDAs with a score of 83.33% – Federal Ministry of Aviation, Education, Transport and Water Resources. Four Federal Ministries (Agriculture, Health, Finance and Labour and Employment) has moderate performance with a score of 75% while the rest performed poorly.

“Monetary value of documented infractions” sub-index stems from the idea that public resources unaccounted for, contracts paid for but end up being abandoned, contract awards that do not follow due process, unretired loans, imprest and advances, questionable payments and a host of other documented infractions in the federal audit reports have direct negative costs and impact on society – a society where people are living in abject poverty and lack. Thus, this sub-index carries a weight pf 25 out of 100 while the five (5) above each has a weight of 15 out of 100. Evidence from the AAI reveals that only six MDA headquarters (Federal Ministries of Environment, Finance, Transport, Science and Technology, Women Affairs and Labour and Employment) obtained a score of 100 under this sub-index; others scored zero. 

When it comes to “unauthorised deductions from the federation account”, evidence from the AAI shows that three out of the four revenue generating agencies (namely the NNPC, DPR and FIRS) have perennially been deducting money from generated revenues due to be paid into the Federation Account. This has been done as either “Other Deductions” or “Amount Paid to Excess Crude/PPT/Royalty Account”. Of the four, only the Nigeria Customs Service has not reported to have made such deductions. This had no weight attached to it as it is not included in the AAI computation but was added to assess the performance of the key revenue generating agencies. 

A cumulative of all the sub sections of the AAI saw the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology emerge 1^st and presented with an award. Others recognised and awarded were awarded include 2nd Position: Federal Ministry of Environment; 3rd Position: Federal Ministry of Transport; 4th Position: Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment; and fifth position: Federal Ministry of Women Affairs.

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