ICPC: 2019 budget was padded with N42bn

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) says the 2019 budget was padded with N41.9 billion.

The anti-graft agency said this via its Twitter handle on Wednesday.

It said the money was added into the budget as personnel cost of some government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

The MDAs’ budgetary allocations usually come under either capital or recurrent expenditure.

The ICPC wrote: “Do you know that ICPC prevented N41.98 billion from taking flight through corruption as padded personnel cost of some MDAs in 2019?

“To find out this and more, tune in now to today’s edition of Corruption Must Go!”

Do you know that ICPC prevented N41.98 billion from taking flight through corruption as padded personnel cost of some MDAs in 2019?

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To find out this and more, tune in now to today's edition of Corruption Must Go! It comes up on NTA Network @ 3:30pm every Wednesday.

— ICPC Nigeria (@icpcnigeria) March 4, 2020

TheCable could not immediately confirm details of the alleged illegality from Rasheedat Okoduwa, ICPC spokesperson.

But this is not the first time of issues around Nigeria’s budget being padded. In 2016, Abdulmumin Jibrin, a former member of the house of representatives, accused the house leadership of padding that year’s budget to the tune of hundreds of billions of naira.

Babatunde Fashola, minister of works, had also accused the lawmakers of padding the 2017 budget, while President Muhammadu Buhari made similar allegations about the 2019 budget.