THE MONUMENTAL FRAUD KNOWN AS 'UNSPENT FUNDS'


There was a time in an African Country known as Nigeria, whose official currency is called the Naira, when a sum of 2.8 billion Naira fraudulently disappeared from the coffers of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Quite amazingly, history tells us that at the time, the Naira was actually stronger than the US dollar and so this 2.8 billion Naira was a big sum of money, worth more than 3 billion US dollars. Naturally, this discovery led to a lot of noise with many asking what happened to the money. The Minister of Petroleum, at the time, an army Major General known as Muhammadu Buhari had no answers to the riddle of how such a huge sum disappeared under his watch, which clearly indicates that he 'knew' about it. He calmly continued in office in spite of this stench though, because you see, in this Country we speak of, there is really no shame in corruption.
And then after a while, a long while, magically the money 'reappeared'!. In a society with low moral standards, it is unsurprising that with this reappearance, business as usual resumed. Few were willing to ask the hard questions: where did the money disappear to?, where did it reappear from? why did it disappear at all?. Low expectations, of course beget low standards and results. Perhaps the worst part of this sordid affair is that the same Muhammadu Buhari, now a retired General as well as a former Head of State ( by the illegal path of coup d'etat against a democratically elected government ), carries himself around decades later as an example of morality. He is sadly referred to as morally upright and 'not corrupt'. This is a truly unfortunate tragedy in its own right.

Which leads to the object of this write-up. A method now perfected to a science of official stealing in Nigeria by funds that disappear and later reappear. I am talking of stealing by the technique that has in this latest regime taken up the new name of 'unspent funds'. You see, what happened with that 2.8 billion Naira of long ago was that it was diverted into a fixed deposit account in some bank during which period it yielded huge fraudulent gains for the perpetrators of the fraud in terms of high interest. Do not forget that we are talking of over 3 billion US dollars here. This scam may have had a different name then, but it's latest incarnation is called 'unspent funds'. Just as NEPA is now PHCN which means Problem Has Changed Name, we are dealing with the same scam, different name. The truly annoying part of this type of fraud is that the money always 'reappears' after the fraudsters have taken their interest, whereupon they take up a "what went wrong, after all here is the money; this is the work of my enemies and detractors etc." attitude. It is therefore almost risk free and if there is anything more attractive to people of low morals than a theft, it is a risk free theft.

It is no longer news that more than 450 billion Naira was returned to the Nigerian National treasury as unspent funds for fiscal year 2008. The legislature and executive have not been shy to make themselves look good as alert and concerned representatives of the people in enforcing the return of these 'unspent funds'. What is worse is that the people and the press seem to swallow it all as nothing particularly strange while the legislators as well as the Ministries are even being protrayed as frugal. In truth, a monumental fraud has been carried out in broad daylight. In one of the examples, the Ministry of Works was reported to have returned 50 billion Naira to the treasury while owing contractors 100 billion Naira! It is clear that most of this 'unspent'money was placed in fixed deposit accounts in banks and made to yield huge sums of fraudulent gains to the high placed thieves among us before being returned with an 'innocent' look as 'unspent funds'. Of course during the crucial 'fixed' period of these funds, several projects meant to better the life of the people were held up. The common man was made to pay by having to endure terrible hardships in the interim. In short, the life of the ordinary citizen was forced to a standstill while a few criminals milked the money meant for all. It is a sad truth that this form of stealing has been elevated to a science in Nigeria and like any science, it even gets improved and refined with time. For example, in addition to the formal fixed deposit, there is the more advanced 'partial fixed deposit'which is even more risk free because it is informal. In this sub-theme, our practiced criminal simply agrees with a bank manager not to 'touch' a certain portion of money in a certain account.
To illustrate, say there is 250 billion available for road construction in the Minsitry of Works. The thieves in charge collude with a Bank Manager as part of the terms for lodging this huge sum in his bank that they guarantee 100 billion of the 250 billion total will remain unspent during the year. This 100 billion thus becomes an unofficial and fraudulent, high interest yielding, fixed deposit by an 'uderstanding' between criminals in high places. For example, the bank may use this portion of the money for stock trading, forex trading, short term high yield investments etc., with the assurance that there will be no call for the money from the Ministry. The effect is that no matter how hard a contractor works, he will not get paid from that part (the 100 out of the 250 billion) of the money because though it is there, it is 'fixed'. In the same way, no matter how many reasonable proposals are written for funds by staff, as long as they affect that part of the money they will not get approved because again, though it is there it is 'fixed'. At the end of the year, the money gets returned to the treasury after yielding millions in fraudulent interest to a few criminals. The legislature and the Executive get credit for returning 'unspent funds' to the treasury, the gullible public continue sleepwalking through this rape of their lives and the cycle is repeated the next year.
The counter-effect is that the contractors are in debt and have had to abandon various sites, projects that are meant to benefit the people are incomplete and will only be resumed later and at huge extra costs which must still come from the treasury, the people are suffering from lack of basic amenities such as electricity, water, roads etc. Worst of all, an unapprehended theft has taken place in broad daylight and at no risk to the thieves.

Last year, a Minsiter, a Minister of State and some officers in the Minsitry of Health were sacked and are right now being prosecuted for misappropriating 300 million Naira which was supposed to have been returned to the treasury at the end of the year as unspent funds. Clearly they must be unpractised in the art of making money through sleaze in high office in Nigeria. It is sad when petty crminals are being paraded and humiliated while far worse ones are walking around freely and perhaps even doing some of the humiliating. Adenike Grange, Gabriel Aduku and others must be amateurs. They could have stolen much more money if they wanted, and at no risk, by simply knowing and applying the sweet science of the'fixed deposit', or the 'partial fixed deposit', followed by the return of 'unspent funds'. That they did not, clearly shows they are not experts. The experts know 'the way' to steal smoothly without risk. They know the sweet science.
Unfortunately, in this country called Nigeria, stealing is not the crime. Getting caught is.