former Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Abdulrhman Dambazu; Zamfara
State Governor, Alhaji Abdullaziz Yari Abubakar; President
Muhammadu Buhari and his personal aide, Abba Sarki during a
prayer in remembrance of Late Emir of Kano Alhaji Dr. Ado Bayero
shortly after the Jumaat prayers at the National Mosque in Abuja,
yesterday.
By Soni Daniel and Favour Nnabugwu, Abuja
President Muham-madu Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade appears
to have taken off in earnest barely a week after assuming office with
a stern warning to ministers not to dabble into approving payments
for contractors.
The government came boldly yesterday with a clear policy directive
asking only the heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies,
MDAs not to abdicate their core functions to ministers who are
political appointees but to do their jobs in strict compliance with the
policy guidelines of the administration.
The Head of Service of Civil Service of the Federation, Mr Danladi
Kifasi, made the new position of the government known at a media
briefing in Abuja.
According to the Head of Service of the Federation, the government
wants to keep the political class away from issues of finance so that
development of our country can be sustained.
He said: “If a minister travels out and payment is due, we cannot
afford to wait for the ministers to come back before we pay.”
Findings by Saturday Vanguard revealed that the HoSF was
compelled to make the clarifications following a clash between
permanent secretaries of major Federal Government ministries and
former ministers in the Jonathan government over the payment of
contractors.
Saturday Vanguard learnt that most permanent secretaries and
directors of accounts in the ministries and MDAs fell out with many
of the immediate past ministers following their refusal to pay
contractors favoured by them for jobs approved and awarded
through the backdoor by the ministers in their last effort to make
quick money out of the system.
The clash between a former minister and a serving permanent
secretary is said to have degenerated into a near major scandal in
one of the major Federal Government ministries in Abuja which
deals with land and development of infrastructure.
The minister was reported to have hurriedly approved the award of
many contracts for companies said to be close to him and later
ordered the permanent secretary to pay the affected contractors, an
order, which the civil servant bluntly turned down, thereby entering
into the bad books of the former minister.
To reverse the trend as the Buhari government takes off, the HoSF,
warned that henceforth, no permanent secretary should allow
themselves to be misdirected by any minister in the award and
payment for contracts.
Kifasi who cleared what he described as a misconception of political
appointees to approve payment for contracts, made it clear that
approval of payments for contracts are strictly the jurisdiction of
accounting officers or directors of the various ministries.
The Head of Service, who was apparently in support of the refusal of
permanent secretaries to pay contractors approved for payment by
out-gone ministers, explained that both the Procurement Act and
extant government circulars clearly define the roles of the civil
servants relating to contract awards and payment.
Kifasi said, “The President has said that his administration will
concentrate on policy issues and so we civil servants are re-
directing our efforts and minds towards achieving or aligning with
the president’s directive.
“Payments are normally approved by the accounting officers. In a
parastatal, it is either the managing director or the director-general.
In the ministry it is the permanent secretary and not the minster.
“In the procurement process, ministers do not approve either. It is
the Ministerial Tenders Board that sits to consider and approve
contracts within their approval threshold. If it is beyond the Board, it
goes to the Federal Executive Council.
“The only thing a minister does is that he signs the council memo
for the procurement that goes to the Federal Executive Council. For
the Ministerial Tenders Board which is usually chaired by the
Permanent Secretary; the Permanent Secretary sends his report and
the minutes of the tenders board to the minister for his concurrence
and endorsement. That is their role
“For instance, if ministers were asked to be approving payments,
now that there are no ministers will work then stop? So it is actually
a misinformation.”
Beyond finance, the HoSF warned civil servants that the warning by
President Buhari for them to change their attitude to work should be
taken seriously as lateness to work and other acts inimical to the
service would not be tolerated any longer.
“Consequently, permanent secretaries, Directors, Chief executives of
parastatals and agencies are to take appropriate steps to address
this situation. All public servants are to note that measures as
enshrined in the Public Service Rules will be enforced on erring
officers,” Kifasi warned.
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