The Ahmed Joda transition
committee has urged
President Muhammadu
Buhari to immediately
terminate all dubious
appointments made by
former President Goodluck
Jonathan in the last nine
months, and review all
contracts awarded by the
administration in the last 18
months.
The committee said this is to
help the new government
sidestep ineptitude and
waste, and scale up its
revenue base.
The recommendations are
part of a portfolio of swift
steps Mr. Buhari must take
within three months of
assumption of power if he
must save cost and “enhance
liquidity”, the committee said
in its 800-page report to the
president.
PREMIUM TIMES exclusively
obtained volumes of the
report, which contain
extensive analyses of
Nigeria’s key challenges, with
suggested responses for the
economy and finance,
governance and social
welfare.
The report details a list of
prompt, medium and long
term decisions Mr. Buhari
must take, or authorise,
within 30, 45, 60 and 90 days
of taking office, to create
immediate impact, reduce
government liability, increase
revenue and stabilise the
polity.
For instance, to deal with
crippling fuel crisis, and
backlog of unpaid salaries by
states and the federal
government, the committee
advised Mr. Buhari to
“borrow immediately or use
CBN (Central Bank) advances”
for salaries and fuel subsidies
to “avoid chaos”.
For contracts, it urged the
administration to “review all contracts
signed in the last 18 months by FGN”.
“Non-strategic contracts that have not
commenced or where no payments have
been made can be cancelled,” the
committee said, while also urging Mr.
Buhari to negotiate exits for projects
where mobilisation payments have been
made but work not commenced.
That move will “save expenditure on
non-strategic projects, and can free up
cash flows for other vital initiatives”, the
committee said.
The decision on contract is to be taken
within 90 days from May 29, and should
be handled by the Federal Executive
Council and the Bureau of Public
Procurement, BPP.
At a time Mr. Buhari is facing growing
criticism over his delay in making key
appointments, and his failure to lay out
initiatives to assure a burdened nation
of immediate relief, the Joda report
provides a fresh perspective on
preparations by the new government
and the ruling All Progressives Congress,
APC, to confront some of Nigeria’s
monstrous problems.
The committee said the president should
review all appointments made by Mr.
Jonathan in the last nine months, and
“for strategic agencies requiring
professional leadership, the government
should terminate all appointments not
based on merit”.
The Joda panel said such move will save
costs associated with poor decision
making by an incompetent management
team, and must be delivered within 45
days of the new government.
That recommendation appears to take
into consideration the last minute
appointments by Mr. Jonathan after he
lost the March 28 elections.
In less than two months, Mr. Jonathan,
not previously given to readily hiring
and firing, sacked dozens of top officials
and replaced them before leaving office.
As further measures to check waste and
increase efficiency and accountability,
the committee urged the government to
quickly implement a single bank
account, to be called Treasury Single
Account, and to commence full
implementation of the Fiscal
Responsibility Act within 60 days, and
chase up any outstanding funds from all
government offices.
This will curtail the “excesses carried
forward from previous administration”,
it noted.
The committee also advised the
government to fully implement the
Integrated Personnel and Payroll
Information System, IPPIS, and
Integrated Government Integrated
Financial Management Information
System across all MDAs within 60 days.
The two facilities were used by the past
government to check thousands of “ghost
workers” who drew billions of naira in
salaries that ended in the pocket of
fraudulent officials.
Despite its claim of saving more than
N100 billion from “ghost workers”, the
Jonathan administration failed to punish
those behind the scam.
Claims by former Finance Minister,
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, that the case had
been transferred to the Independent
Corrupt Practices and other Related
Offences Commission (ICPC) alongside
names of indicted officials, were
repeatedly refuted by the anti-graft
body.
But more than other proposals in that
unit of the report, the committee paid
greater attention to government
contracts and urged President Buhari to
be decisive in reviewing the deals.
The committee said the handover notes
from the Jonathan administration
showed aggregate contractor liabilities
of N4 trillion as at April 2015.
Of that amount, the Ministry of
Education owed the most at N1.2
trillion, followed by the finance
ministry which has N467.7 billion.
The committee warned Mr. Buhari that it
would be irrational to rely on the
purported huge balances the former
government claimed it left behind.
First, it said, the numbers lacked key
information to establish the authenticity
of the contracts.
It made the following observation
regarding the claims by the former
government regarding outstanding
liabilities:
– The aging of these liabilities was not
provided.
– A detailed list of contracts was not
provided and therefore, some balances
maybe double counted (eg contracts
funded through debt maybe captured in
both MoF and the contracting Ministry).
– Some balances may be disputed.
Therefore, liabilities may change once
settlement/judgement is reached.
– No documentation was provided to
confirm if the projects were executed to
the agreed specifications.
– Some contracts maybe cancelled or
terminated”.
As a first step, the Joda-committee
advised Mr. Buhari to establish an Inter-
Ministerial Task-Force to review all
outstanding contracts (and associated
liabilities) across all Ministries,
Departments and Agencies within three
months.
“The mandate of this Task-Force is to
confirm the existence of the liability and
authenticate the accuracy of information
provided in the handover notes,” it said.
“The Government should only recognise
the liabilities verified and confirmed by
this Task-Force.”
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