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Olaiya Oni, former chairman of the Labour Party, LP, in Ondo State, speaks to Demola Abimboye, principal associate editor, on the Report of the Auditor-General on the Accounts of the Government of Ondo State, for the year ended December 31, 2010, submitted to the State House of Assembly. Excerpts:

Newswatch: On February 1, 2012, Olusegun Mimiko, governor of Ondo State, presented his budget for this year. What did you make of it?

Oni: The other time I spoke, I raised the issue of financial recklessness of Mimiko, governor of Ondo State, and l said the financial recklessness has developed into financial rascality and profligacy and l am going to use documents to prove what l have just said. Precisely, on December 15, 2011, two weeks to the end of the financial year, Mimiko presented to the House of Assembly what he called a reordered budget which is not known to the management of public expenditure in this country. I challenged him; I took the State House of Assembly to court but unfortunately, they hurriedly passed the reordered budget before the case could be heard.

The key issue in my suit is that nothing in the constitution shows that there is a budget called reordered budget and we only have an approved budget and if the provisions are not enough, you go back to the House for a supplementary budget. But in his own case, by 15th of December, only two weeks to the end of the financial year, he presented the reordered budget and backdated it to the beginning of the financial year. As a financial expert, l knew right away that he had spent money over and above the approved budget for 2011 and he was merely looking for a way to cover up that over-expenditure without appropriation. I challenged the members of the House of Assembly. I asked if they had done their oversight functions to establish the fact that what was voted in 2010 and 2011 had been judiciously spent before approving additional income for the governor? As the people of Ondo State know, there is no development going on in the state and this has been the situation since 2009. Money was just being withdrawn from the treasury by the governor and spent recklessly.

I also asked the House of Assembly whether the entire committee of the House called Public Accounts Committee had looked into the audited accounts of the state to see that money voted had been well spent and according to the rules of the game. The House of Assembly ignored my observations but in any case, I had made my point to the public. I have now been vindicated. The new budget presented by Mimiko on Wednesday, February 1, repeated all the items in his reordered budget and it went to confirm the issue I raised that if he needed more funds for capital projects, the budget year was ending within two weeks, why not wait for 2012 budget and ask for such provisions. As I said, I knew the man was just asking for extra cash to cover up his over-expenditure or reckless expenditure through his reordered budget. I will just quote just a few examples. The 2012 budget for road construction and maintenance is N16 billion whereas on December 15, 2011, the House of Assembly approved for him additional N5.1 billion to the N9.4 billion initially appropriated for 2011, making a total of N14.5 billion for road construction in 2011. Yet all the road contracts in Ondo State without exception are non- performing. It is what everybody can see. This pattern ran through the total budget of the state for 2011.

What I mean by this pattern is that they are all in the reordered budget of December 15. I know nobody can spend that money. And for every item in the reordered budget of 2011, he has repeated all of them in the 2012 budget. That was the issue I raised. If you want to spend more money as at December 15, just two weeks to the end of the financial year, why not wait for the 2012 appropriation?

While other state governments were sending the 2012 appropriation bills to their houses of assembly, Mimiko was sending a reordered budget. The issues are clear. Fortunately for me, I have laid my hands on the audit report of the auditor-general to the Ondo State House of Assembly which was submitted in 2011 for the year ended December 31, 2010. The following observations flowed from the auditor-general’s report. First, most of the expenditure for 2010 on capital account did not contain contract documents or any authorisation. What they presented to the auditor were payments made in respect of various projects. The auditor could not lay his hands on the contract awards to know whether the contracts were genuine or frivolous or whether they have been executed or not.

And there is no government department that did not receive at least five audit queries on this issue. Secondly, all these audit queries bordered on over-expenditure. That is a way you can ascertain that the reordered budget was meant to cover up money spent without appropriation. Third, the auditors could not even ascertain the projects physically.

Newswatch: Can you go to specifics?

Oni: The auditor general has now proved what I had been saying. I want to go to specifics. Overspending on capital projects was N2.9 billion. The ministry of finance could not produce authority for excess expenditure totalling N2.5 billion over the approved budget for the year. The Ministry of Youth Development and Sports had “unproduced” contract documents of N256 million for work done in four stadia but nothing was done there.

For the Ministry of Agriculture, the documents were in two batches: over expenditure and projects not accounted for. The auditor could not pass expenditures totalling N160 million either because they could not be accounted for or there were no receipts for the spending or could not be supported by proper records or accounts. A contract of N594 million was awarded to an Abuja-based company to supply tractors and spare parts. When the auditors asked for the papers in a letter marked GMD/MAG/CP/1/10 of July 12, 2010, the ministry could not produce the contract papers.

The contractor did not supply because at that time, my company in agro business got a contract to supply 20 and the Abuja company 80. I told them that what they were doing was bad. At the end of the day, they asked me to supply three for N45 million. I supplied four for the N45 million. The quality of the tractors I supplied was 300 percent better than the ones the other people supplied for N12 million each. I supplied mine at N10.2 million per one. So the tractors they distributed to various agricultural farms could not work for two weeks. The farmers rejected them and yet they paid for them.

Newswatch: How did you know so much about the accounts of the administration?

Oni: I was once the financial secretary of the state for two and half years. You know I am a technocrat. I was the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Ondo State, and I was secretary to the head of service of the state. I have been here since 1978 and there is nobody that can claim knowledge of Ondo State more than me. I have been politically active beside the fact that I am a technocrat. I have served in almost all the ministries: works, finance, and education as well as governor’s office. So, I know everything. When I was saying all these things, people asked where I got all these from? Financial management is a calling and if you know it, when a man gets in, you know where he is going.

You know one danger about government expenditure is that the governor does not sign cheques, does not even know the colour of Ondo State cheque book. So, it must pass through people to move these funds out – the commissioner and the permanent secretary, Ministry of Finance, accountant general and the chairmen controlling each vote, then through the officer who is going to write the cheque. By the time a governor does all that, somebody along the line might say this is not good. That is why it is not easy to steal government money and get away with it. For people who know the system like me, you cannot steal government money and go away with it.

Newswatch: What was the House of Assembly doing when all this profligacy went on?

Oni: The House of Assembly is collaborating. They saw this report and yet they went ahead to approve the reordered budget. This report was submitted to the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Assembly. So, the Assembly was collaborating with the governor to loot the treasury of the state. But people did not know.

When I did my press conference last year, the House’s spokesman said the governor reacted but contradicted themselves. Mimiko said the re-ordered budget was to move funds from non active areas to active areas, yet the Assembly said the money would be used for what it was voted for. On December 15? Who are they deceiving? They are deceiving themselves, not the intelligent people of Ondo State. So, that reordered budget was simply meant to loot and the reports have shown it. The auditor said that the reordered budget was backdated to July 2011 and he noticed that the trend in 2010 continued in 2011, but he did not say so until he presented the audited account of 2011.

Newswatch: What do you think will be the pattern for 2012?

Oni: The trend in 2011 was open and in 2012, it will be more open because it is the election year. All the items in the reordered budget featured in the 2012 budget.                                                                                          The man will just be carrying the money for the purpose of winning the November election. He has promised that he will use our money to fight us. The election will be in November or December, if we follow the statutory requirement which says that the election must be conducted three months before the end of the tenure of the governor and his tenure ends February 23, 2013. If he had been so reckless before, he will be more reckless this year. It will be supersonic recklessness.