The Nigerian Senate has accused the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) of withholding vital documents that are needed to fully conduct investigations into the apex bank’s controversial Ways and Means funding.
The Senate Ad-Hoc Committee on Finance was inaugurated by the Senate with the mandate to investigate the huge accumulation of Ways and Means borrowings by the apex bank and its utilization over the past years.
The Ad-Hoc Committee chairman, Sen. Isah Jibril, on Tuesday alleged that the CBN management had consistently failed to provide the necessary documents, despite repeated requests thereby stalling the committee’s efforts to achieve its mandate.
According to the lawmaker, the committee’s preliminary investigation has showed major infractions, particularly on the part of the CBN, including disbursement of funds without proper approval, with some transactions totaling billions of naira.
Following the Ad-hoc committee’s past experiences, it had given apex bank an ultimatum to provide the necessary documents, cautioning the representative of CBN not appear before at its next meeting but rather insisted that the Deputy Governor of CBN should come with all the necessary documents needed by it to conduct the investigations.
A member of the Ad-Hoc Committee, Sen. Ume, lamented: “Inability to get to the bottom, full records to be able to unravel this huge accumulation of Ways and Means and then the usage of the anchor borrower’s funds.”
“I find it very difficult to take that CBN cannot answer very simple questions if they have nothing to hide. The documents we received before. The consultants on Ways and Means have been able to show only about 6.7 trillion. And the documents we had that we queried before we stopped showed indiscriminate approvals and non-approvals of these Ways and Means is what they gave us here again now.
“We have the records. But CBN was not able to answer the questions we put to them, how these funds were used. If you release funds to whom did you release the funds to?
“There are preponderant disbursements that were not backed with any approval, not even presidency. Some of them, the chief of staff to the president, will give instruction to the governor of Central Bank to release as huge as 500 billion, 800 billion, 1.5 trillion. They are in the records here.
So what we are looking for, to be able to tell Nigerians how we arrived at this position, was the essence of appointing these consultants.
“Nigerians have started accusing us of being settled, that the Ways and Means have been swept under the carpet, the investigation is no longer on.
“And you assured us that the consultants are working. Now they have come, they’ve given us a report that corresponded with what we found out before we got stuck.
So I will say that today, we have to decide on how to go forward. The CBN that disbursed all these funds that are shrouded in all kinds of mystery, they have to provide these records. Because CBN is a public institution”, the lawmaker added.
In his comments, the chairman of the Ad-Hoc Committee confirmed that the CBN failed to submit the needed documents to aid its investigations.
He clarified: “I’ve just spoken to the clerk of the committee. None of those documents were submitted to us. Maybe you need to find out from your staff. None of those documents were submitted to us.
“You were supposed to give us the documents and we were supposed to in turn give all the documents to the consultants, but you never did. CBN didn’t do that, you’ve not submitted the documents to us.
“And as it is, we may not allow you to attend the next meeting because you have been coming here consistently. The least person that will attend the next meeting should be the Deputy Governor of CBN.
“I know it is his responsibility. It is part of his schedule. He must appear at our next meeting. What you are telling us is not the truth. We have not received the documents. I don’t want to deceive the public here.
“Having said that, distinguished colleagues, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I want to come up with some closing statements. First, when this assignment was given to us, like you all know, the President entrusted us with this assignment and tasked us that we should come up with our report within the shortest possible time. We held several meetings with the relevant parties.
“And when the consultants made available to us this interim report, our intention was to hold on to the interim report until they come up with the final report. The problem is that the Central Bank of Nigeria has denied us consistently the documents that we need to complete this assignment. That is the truth. I was at CBN sometimes.
”I met the CBN governor. I met Bala, the deputy governor. And they promised and nothing came out of it. My clerk, too, has been there several times. Nothing has come out of it. The consultants themselves even took it upon themselves to go to CBN directly because we introduced them to CBN and nothing has come out of it.
“So let the Nigerian public know that this job has been stuck. This assignment has been stuck by the Central Bank of Nigeria. They’ve denied us the relevant documents to proceed with this job. Nigerians will judge you. Having said that, we are legislators, we will not back out.
“You must avail us or avail the consultants all the documents that they require to complete this assignment. The reason for this meeting is to let everybody know why we have not been able to finish this assignment.
“Because it looks as if we have compromised. Naturally, we all have our individual integrity. It looks as if we have compromised. I discussed with the Senate President that the Nigerian public may be thinking that we have gone to sleep. And that is not the case.
“This is a major assignment that bothers everybody. We want to know how these monies were utilized. Okay? We want to know how these monies were utilized
“Preliminary reports show that there are major infractions, especially on the part of the Central Bank of Nigeria. But you have to defend that. We need all the documents, without exception,” the lawmaker insisted.
Sen. Jibril further called for CBN compliance in providing all documents needed by the consultants to ensure that this job is completed efficiently and as soon as possible.
He maintained that “as it is, we don’t have a choice than to give them a time limit within which they must provide all the documents to the consultants. Since you are the desk commissioner, how soon can you make all the documents requested available to the consultants?”
As expected the ongoing investigations by the National Assembly of the CBN’s Ways and Means borrowings and the utilization have sparked public concerns about the apex bank’s transparency and accountability in the management of the funds.
