A FRESH staff audit in the Federal Civil Service has led to the recovery of N4. 8 bn believed to have been meant for ghost beneficiaries.
Some top civil servants and their subordinates often exploited lapses such as delay in payment of newly-recruited workers� salaries and delayed remittance of Pay As You Earn and tax deductions to appropriate funds meant for government treasury.
Such funds are then expended arbitrarily, mostly on unbudgeted items such as �overhead costs�.
A source in Abuja said that the latest recovery was made possible by investigations coordinated by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission.
The scam was discovered in many ministries; departments and agencies, though the source declined giving specific names of the ministries.
�The system review exercise, which started late last year, covered all the 37 Federal Pay Offices in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. It was discovered that there were several unethical and unprofessional accounting practices going on in many federal ministries, departments and agencies.
�In many cases, funds were generally transferred from personnel cost to overhead costs by many organisations and the arbitrary transfer is a serious breach of the ICPC Act,� the source stated.
It was learnt that the N4. 8bn was recovered from the accounts of 68 MDAs in all the federal pay offices across the country.
Sources at the ICPC listed some of the institutions where the highest recoveries were made to include the Nigeria Immigration Service with about N1.2 billion; the Revenue Allocation and Fiscal Commission with N936 million, and the Nigeria Security and Civil defence Corps with N168 million.
The ICPC�s spokesman, Mr. Folu Olamiti, declined comments on the matter when our correspondent contacted him on Thursday in Abuja.
�I cannot confirm details of your own investigations,� he told Sunday Punch during a visit to his office at ICPC headquarters in Abuja.
Reacting to the development, the Public Relations Officer at the Nigeria Immigration Service, Mr. Ekpoudom King, confirmed the existence of such unutilized funds, adding that NIS � active emphasis on transparent management of funds actually led to the recovery.
Mr. King explained further, �It was the NIS that returned the monies; they were funds that were not spent. I cannot give you all the details now but there are funds that were not spent in some departments. We have various entitlements for immigration personnel but these had to be returned into federal coffers after not being unutilised.
�It is a normal procedure; there is no questionable manipulation. The NIS initiated the return of the funds to the ICPC and they have decided to formally commend the management of NIS ,� King stated.