*To trace huge cash stolen from MDAs
*Compiles list of perpetrators, MDAs used as conduits
*Agric, road, health, rural electrification, border agency, others in trouble

By Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor

HOW much of cash earmarked by the Federal Government for the execution of people-oriented projects across the country was siphoned through the back door by influential and powerful politicians for many years running? This is the big task that the Federal Government has opted to undertake in order to ascertain the exact amount cornered by a few elements and take appropriate measures to recover the cash and punish the masterminds. And this time government is determined to probe the government bodies beyond the President Jonathan administration. The investigation, we gathered will stretch to 1999.

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Already, some aggrieved officials of Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government have briefed the relevant agencies on how the big fraud that has cost the nation a fortune was orchestrated. The briefing indicated top-ranking and powerful politicians used their influence to smuggle projects into the budgets of many parastatals and browbeat their heads to transfer the money meant for such schemes to them under an agreed sharing formula.

In most cases, the politicians were said to have nominated the ‘contractors’ to the parastatals to sign and collect cash in the name of ‘mobilisation fees’ and disappear without doing any work while those who attempted any job abandoned them midway.

The establishments named in the illicit deals include River Basin authorities spread across the country, where politicians were said to have turned into cash cows over the years.  Others are rural electrification, water and health-related agencies that were used  as conduits by politicians for siphoning huge sums of money over the years.

But apparently annoyed by the looting of such public funds by a few crooked persons close to the corridors of power, the Federal Government decided to probe such criminal deals and bring the culprits to book to serve as a deterrent in line with its anti-corruption agenda. The investigation according to the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, is being coordinated by his office in conjunction with relevant anti-corruption agencies with a view to pinning down the arrowheads of the budget fraud.

Malami told Saturday Vanguard in an exclusive interview that the aim of the investigation was to prosecute those who aided and abetted politicians to defraud the nation of scarce resources and deny the citizens of basic services. The federal government is interested in fishing out and punishing all those heads of parastatals who allowed themselves to be used by influential persons in the executive and legislative arms of government by smuggling non-existing projects into successive budgets and making away with large sums of money budgeted for them,” Malami said.

“You will recall that over time there has been this criminal conspiracy among some levels of government resulting in budget padding by many of the parastatals and the money diverted and shared by some powerful individuals to the detriment of majority of Nigerians, who have been denied vital services. The present administration has taken note of the painful antics of a few powerful elements and we have decided to fish them out and punish them for others to see that corruption is not in the interest of anybody in Nigeria,” the minister said.

Answering a question, the AGF said that the number of agencies involved in the orchestrated crime, had been compiled together with the amount of money lost by Nigeria to the fraud in recent years, but declined to give the exact figure.

Although the minister refused to name the agencies fingered in the budget fraud, Vanguard learnt last night that several of the Federal Government-promoted River Basin Development Authorities, federal road agency, rural electrification outfit and many health and poverty alleviation organisations were suspected to be deeply involved in the scam.

A source in one of the agencies said to have been raided by one of the anti-graft agencies and vital financial documents seized, told Vanguard that the agency was just being used by influential persons in the corridors of power to siphon taxpayers funds without any job being done at the end of every year.

One of the parastatals located in Calabar to cater for Cross River and Akwa Ibom states, is believed to have been actively aiding powerful politicians to make away with hundreds of millions of Naira yearly under the guise of providing water and rural feeder roads, farm equipment and training to Nigerians without any verifiable evidence.

The closest one, which is supposed to cater for natives of Rivers and nearby states, is reported to have used the same method to warehouse money for powerful elements within the catchment areas. We gathered that the probe may extend to 1999.