THE recent crisis over petrol subsidy has uncovered the audacity of public officials in perpetrating financial recklessness. So audacious have the officials become that, without parliamentary approval, a staggering N1.05 trillion was reportedly drawn to “subsidise” fuel imports. The scale of the unauthorised spending is matched only by the indifference of the perpetrators to popular outrage. But the way forward is for the culprits to be brought to book and every kobo accounted for.

It was late last year that the House of Representatives got wind of the government’s outrageous spending on subsidy for petroleum products imports, which far exceeded the N245 billion provided for in the 2011 national budget. The government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation were later to admit that, as at October, total payments made to marketers had reached N1.3 trillion. The extra funds illegally drawn down amounted to 23.83 per cent of the entire N4.4 trillion budgeted in 2011. Petroleum Resources Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, insists the NNPC’s action was backed by the 2011 Appropriation Act, which, she claimed, provided that deductions could be made on domestic subsidy and cash calls. But Section 80 of the Constitution expressly forbids expenditure not charged to the Consolidated Revenue Fund and authorised by an enabling Appropriation Act. As many lawyers and civil society groups have said, it is an impeachable offence that also violates the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has said neither her ministry nor the government knows who gave the NNPC the authority to spend without approval.

The legal option open to the government after exhausting the budgeted N245 billion was to have asked for authorisation through a supplementary budget and Act. Surely, the tolerance – and frequent complicity – of the legislature for such hanky-panky since the inauguration of the Fourth Republic has emboldened the executive arm to appropriate such a large sum for a project that unfolding revelations now show to be driven by massive corruption. Legislators need to wake up from their slumber as the consensus of informed opinion across the world is that corruption and fiscal recklessness, not subsidy, could destroy Nigeria’s economy. The case presents an opportunity to revive the comatose war against corruption and instil fiscal discipline in the running of the Federal Government.

Official recklessness is evident in the collapse of the Excess Crude Account created by the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency as savings. President Goodluck Jonathan and his predecessor, the late Umaru Yar’ Adua, wiped out the $23 billion they met in ECA. Imprudent management is evident in the depletion of foreign reserves which now hover around N32-33 billion from $51 billion, despite persistently high crude oil prices of $100 per barrel and above. The reserves had been built up by the previous government when oil prices were below $70 per barrel. A yet-to-be-denied report alleges that N114 billion has also been drawn from the Stabilisation Fund – another safety net – by the Presidency under curious headings such as “purchase of cars” and “loan to INEC” while some payments were allegedly not properly documented. No convincing explanation has been proffered by the government for the rising domestic and external debts put at N5.2 trillion and about $5.3 billion respectively as at August 2011 in the face of decrepit infrastructure and poor public services. The Due Process Office, once a vibrant check on reckless spending, has been weakened and financial indiscipline pervades ministries, departments and agencies.

It is, indeed, difficult to overstate the scale of what is at stake. For over 10 years, the NNPC has refused to provide detailed (not summaries) audited accounts to the parliament in violation of the law. The legislature was powerless when in 2011 this dubious example was followed by over 35 other agencies that defied requests for their accounts to be produced ahead of the passage of the 2011 Appropriation Act. The defiant claim by NNPC that it can spend its revenue as it pleases without remitting it to the Federation Account should be challenged and the lawlessness curtailed.

The burden of unravelling the fuel subsidy jigsaw falls on the National Assembly. An independent legislature is the critical arm of government in a democracy since the executive and the judiciary exist even in dictatorships. Parliaments jealously guard their power to authorise the spending of state funds and no responsible one will tolerate unauthorised spending by the executive. The National Assembly risks being rendered irrelevant by continued challenge to its constitutional authority to control the purse strings of the state. The risk is real.

The assembly will need to key in to the anger of an increasingly discerning electorate and muster sufficient courage to confront the arrogance of officials who seek to justify their assault on the treasury. Neither the lame excuses of Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, nor the attempt by Budget Director, Bright Okogwu, to wave the illegal appropriation away on the grounds that the budgeted sum of N245 billion for subsidy payment “was a mere estimate” should be accepted. Public funds were drawn without approval, period.

Those who did it should be held accountable. Nothing else will assuage the injury done to the citizens, who, in addition to the lost revenue, are now saddled with a 49.23 per cent hike in petrol price and the attendant rise in the cost of living. It is crucial to the country’s financial health and the sustenance of democracy that this practice is put down.

Punch Editorial

Who will bail the cat? It is a pity that NASS which suppose to represent the masses and check the excesses of the executive and judiciary are deep into the mess as well, oh! God help your children.