The verification of assets declared by state governors, their deputies, commissioners and other political office holders across the 36 states of the federation may soon become a source of worry as the Code of Conduct Bureau fails to fund its state offices nationwide.
The 36 state offices of the CCB are in charge of thousands of asset declaration forms and the accompanying asset ownership documents belonging to political office holders and career civil servants resident in the various states.
Finding by The According on Wednesday revealed that the CCB headquarters in Abuja currently owes its 36 state offices running cost allowances for about seven months.
According to officials, over 1,000 political office holders and career civil servants’ asset declaration forms and asset documents are handled by each of the 36 state CCB offices.
State offices
Top CCB officials who spoke to The According on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak on the matter, said the development had nearly grounded the state offices’ operations.
The officials said the lack of funds to run the state offices had affected their ability to do necessary follow-ups on the asset declaration forms submitted by governors, their deputies, commissioners, state assembly lawmakers, local government chairmen, govs’ aides, and career civil servants, as mandated by the 1999 constitution.
The bureau was allocated N2.6bn in the 2023 Appropriation Act but in December, its acting Chairman, Murtala Kankia, presented a budget proposal of N49bn to the Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Representatives on Ethics Privileges and Anti-Corruption, noting that under-funding was hampering the operations of the bureau.
He added that to properly carry out the mandate of asset administration, verification and prosecution of cases at the tribunal, the bureau must be better funded.
The CCB got a total of N15.24bn in five years, according to an analysis of its budgets between 2020 and 2024.
The bureau got budget funding of N2. 47bn in 2020, N3.14bn in 2021, N3.79bn in 2022, N2.69bn in 2023 and N3.14bn in 2024.
On March 28, President Tinubu appointed Dr Abdullahi Bello as the new CCB chairman pending confirmation by the Senate. Bello succeeded Prof Isah Mohammed, who was appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in November 2018.
According to the constitution, the CCB is empowered to verify the assets declared by Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, their aides and 28 new governors who were sworn in on May 29, 2023.
The bureau is also expected to vet the assets declared by other officials, including senators and the House of Representatives.
The CCB spokesperson, Mrs Veronica Kato, had told The According in an interview last year that asset declaration was an integral part of the swearing-in ceremony of political leaders, according to the law.
In compliance with the constitution, several elected officials reportedly submitted their assets declaration forms to the CCB state offices nationwide ahead of their inauguration.
Furthermore, former officials, including ex-president Muhammadu Buhari, presidential aides, 28 state governors and their cabinet members, National Assembly and state assembly members and local government chairmen equally obtained assets declaration forms from the CCB and submitted the same in line with the 1999 constitution.
The concerned individuals were expected to submit their six-month bank statements alongside their asset declaration forms.
They were also required to appear before the CCB team in their states to present title documents of some of the assets they claimed belonged to them in the asset forms.
However, sources in the bureau, including a commissioner at the CCB headquarters in Abuja and a director, confirmed that the state offices were being starved of funds and have been unable to carry out their responsibility on the asset declaration forms declared by politically exposed persons.
Also, a director, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation, said the last time he received an allowance from the CCB headquarters was in May 2023.
He disclosed that over 100 ad hoc staff, including security personnel guarding sensitive documents, and drivers attached to state directors, were being owed salaries for several months.
He stated, “We have just been paid three months allowance out of 11 months arrears. We don’t know whether it was part of last year or this year. Before then, the last running cost payment we received from our headquarters was in May 2023.
“We were paid three months, three months received out of 11 months (arrears). The money was released to the agency but never got to state offices. That actually paralysed the operational activities of the state offices.
“State offices of the code of conduct bureau were created per constitutional provisions, hence there must be appropriation of funds to state offices.’’
Due to paucity of funds, our correspondent was informed that the state offices have been struggling to pay electricity and water bills and had been unable to carry out routine maintenance on their office buildings or meet other financial obligations such as the payment of security guards, drivers and cleaners who earn N20,000 and N15,000 monthly, respectively.
‘’We find it hard to pay our electricity and water bills, security guards, drivers, cleaners or procure stationery. Also, our duty tour allowance has not been paid for several months and we fuel and maintain the operational vehicles from our pockets.
‘’So, how can the state office function without proper funding? What did the head office do with the money?’’ the director queried.
The director was corroborated by a CCB commissioner who confirmed that the state offices have not been getting funds from Abuja.
‘’I’m aware that the state offices are not properly funded by the CCB headquarters. It has been an issue for some time but the chairman has failed to do the needful despite several complaints and memos on the matter,’’ he said.
Kankia, the ex-acting CCB chairman, could not be reached for comment on Wednesday as calls to his phone indicated it was switched off.
But the CCB spokesperson, Kato, denied that the bureau’s state offices were denied funds.
Responding over the phone on Wednesday, she said, ‘’That’s not true; I know our offices are well funded.’’
When told that a CCB commissioner confirmed the financial situation in the state offices, Kato noted, ‘’That’s strange to me but because today is a public holiday, I can’t get across to anyone to get information. Call me next week, maybe I can get some information on the issue.’’
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, Ned Imasuen, confirmed that he received a note indicating that the staff of the bureau had yet to receive payments for a couple of months.
As a result, the lawmakers said he had reached out to the chairman of the CCB to confirm the veracity of the claim.
However, he noted some delays in getting the CCB chairman to speak on the matter.
Imasuen said, “Hopefully, we will see the chairman by Friday, this is part of the issue I wanted to raise with him because someone had sent me a note on this that they haven’t been paid for a couple of months.
“At the minimum, I should be able to speak with him clearly on this because I spoke to him earlier today and he stated that he was at the funeral of a relative. So, by tomorrow, I should be able to speak to him to clearly if it’s true or false.”
CACOL, others kick
Reacting to the development, the Chairman of the Centre for Accountability and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, stated that the CCB had been made “a toothless bulldog” because many of those who should fund the anti-corruption agency were allegedly equally complicit in assets declaration fraud.
He argued that the Bureau should ideally be funded to be able to carry out verification of assets acquired even outside the country, adding that many of the public officials escaped justice because the CCB was often unable to provide verification evidence to the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
Adeniran said, “Since the time of President Olusegun Obasanjo, the Code of Conduct Bureau has always been complaining of underfunding, or inadequate funding, inadequate provision, inadequate technical and maybe other capacities, so, it is not just a new thing. So, it is unreasonable, it is like making the CCB, the oldest anti-corruption agency, a toothless bulldog. It is like a deliberate ploy to cripple the activities of the CCB, because many of those who are supposed to provide them with funding, training, equipment, and everything that they require, are complicit in most of the corruption cases that involve the declaration of assets, and that is why they do not want to build the capacity of the CCB.”
He added, “Sometimes the assets are not located in Nigeria, CCB is supposed to be empowered to travel anywhere or send delegates anywhere the asset is located, to verify the cost, the quality, and the quantity of the asset. So basically, they need much more than they are being empowered to do. They need more staffers because they are supposed to work at every level of government, but the government is crippling them, and that is a disservice to the wellbeing of Nigerian people.”
Corroborating this view, the Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani), alleged that the CCB had become a tool for manipulation in the hands of the political class, adding that without the work of the Bureau, it would be difficult to “sanitise” the public system.
“The Code of Conduct has become an organisation that is not effective and efficient in the country. It is only effective and efficient when there is a political interest. It is a pity that the CCB which is supposed to be a very serious institution in the fight against corruption, has been reduced to nothing by the politicians, and it is only when they want to use it that they make it work, like in the case of Kano,” he said.
“Without the work of the CCB, it will be difficult to sanitise the public system. They would just be stealing and looting, and refusing to declare their assets, as they are supposed to. So, we need to make sure that the CCB is free from political manipulation and control by politicians”, he added.
The Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria, Andrew Mamedu, said the non-funding of the CCB was “against the letter and intent” of the establishment of the Bureau, adding that the funding of the CCB was crucial to its function and independence.
“First of all, has the money been approved? If the money has been approved, has it been released? If it has been released, where is it, where is that breach coming from? Is it from the head office, is it the National Assembly did not pass the budget, or we didn’t approve it? And I know there are statutory agencies that must have their budgets approved, so if the budget has been approved, why have they not been released?
“Or is it deliberate, is somebody deliberately starving them of funds just to weaken the agency? So, when you starve them of funds, you weaken them, then clearly, they are compromised and of course, they will not play their part in the fight against corruption. I don’t think it is something we need to debate, and clearly, the Presidency, if they see this, they should be able to respond appropriately and immediately, to make sure that their funds are released, if not, we will not mind to hold them accountable”, he said.
