N1.35 Billion Moved Through NEPAD Nigeria Staff Personal Bank Accounts With No Accounting For Where It Went Under CEO Princess Gloria Akobundu

Secrets Reporters

Across two previous reports, SecretsReporters has exposed how NEPAD Nigeria failed to maintain proper records for N12.13 billion in spending, denied auditors access to N3.47 billion more, and awarded a N6.94 billion contracts in direct contravention of procurement guidelines

This report covers more findings from that same documents detailing a cluster of cash, staff payment and administrative failures that complete a picture of an agency whose financial controls broke down almost everywhere auditors looked.

N1.35 billion, the largest finding in this batch represents unaccounted payments made through staff personal bank accounts, the same pattern of routing public funds through individual staff members rather than institutional or vendor accounts that SecretsReporters has documented as a recurring red flag across multiple federal institutions.

N1,010,934,617.50 in administrative advances were never accounted for. N338,924,255.00 was paid for programmes with no accounting of what the money delivered. N326,500,500.00 in payments carried no relevant supporting documents. N235,388,244.00 in payments violated the Federal Government’s e-payment policy. N89,700,459.00 in workshop and staff welfare funds went unaccounted for. N71,336,101.75 in statutory taxes were never deducted. N33,000,073.15 in advance payments were retired using documents the audit found doubtful. N29,440,575.26 in cash advances were granted above the approved limit. N20,757,007.74 involved an unsubstantiated variance in staff salaries and allowances.

A separate finding of N11,600,100.00 recorded a second, distinct e-payment policy violation. N10,418,000.00 was paid for publicity and media briefing work with no evidence it was ever performed. N6,094,730.02 involved an unjustified insertion of taxes. N5,050,100.00 was flagged as questionable sponsorship of foreign travel. N4,000,000.00 covered an unclear transaction involving a bounced cheque paid to a staff member. N2,480,000.00 in public funds were paid into a staff member’s personal bank account described as out-of-pocket expenses.

And a final finding recorded official vehicles that could not be accounted for during physical verification, with no isolated figure attached.

Princess Gloria Akobundu led NEPAD Nigeria throughout the period as National Coordinator and Chief Executive Officer,

The Treasury Single Account framework requires that institutional payments move through verified institutional or vendor accounts, not personal staff accounts which was violated by N1.35 billion. The Financial Regulations 2009 require full accounting for every administrative advance violated by N1.01 billion. Nigeria’s tax withholding obligations under the Companies Income Tax Act were breached by N.34 million in non-deducted taxes. And Paragraph 2001 of the Financial Regulations, governing the Accounting Officer’s responsibility for safeguarding government assets, was breached by the unaccounted official vehicles.

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