ABUJA — Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has announced plans to establish an independent expert team to examine records connected with ₦33.75 billion in Federal Government cash transfers to more than 3.29 million households.
The announcement followed findings attributed to the Auditor General for the Federation’s 2024 Annual Report on Non Compliance and Internal Control Weaknesses in federal ministries, departments and agencies.
The audit reviewed transactions conducted by the National Cash Transfer Office during the 2023 financial year.
According to the findings, electronic transfers totalling ₦33.751 billion were recorded for 3,295,207 households and beneficiaries drawn from the National Social Register and National Beneficiary Register across 35 states.
Auditors, however, reported that the payment vouchers did not contain complete beneficiary details. They also said the Remita statement needed to reconcile the transfers with the registered beneficiaries was not presented for examination.
The absence of those records prevented the audit team from confirming whether the listed recipients were genuine and whether the payments reached the intended beneficiaries.
The audit findings do not establish that the funds were stolen or diverted. They identify documentation and internal control weaknesses, recommend that the National Programme Manager account for the expenditure before the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committees and call for recovery of any amount that cannot be satisfactorily explained.
Atiku, speaking through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said his proposed team would include specialists in finance, auditing, technology and public accounting.
He said the review would examine beneficiary figures, payment channels, reconciliation documents and other records available through public and institutional sources.
The former vice president also called on the government to produce a verifiable payment trail and identify any officials who may have prevented auditors from obtaining relevant records.
His latest intervention goes beyond his earlier demand for the government to reconcile conflicting public statements about the number of households reached by the cash transfer programme. The proposed review has not started, and no date was announced for the release of its findings.
The National Cash Transfer Office and the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction had not issued a publicly accessible response to Atiku’s latest statement when this report was prepared.
