August 17, (THEWILL) — The Federal Government’s recent directive to all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, MDAs, to stop issuing contract award letters without warrants or Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIE) from the Minister of Finance, is one of the latest in a series of such directives frequently issued by the executive and legislative arms of government and routinely ignored with impunity by the MDAs.
On the other hand, the MDAs often fail to honour invitations by the National Assembly for budgetary defence every year.
Yet no sanction has ever been meted out to the heads of the MDAs. And the impunity continues.
For instance, in October 15, 2024, the Federal Government directed appointees of President Bola Tinubu and heads of federal agencies to henceforth honour invitations for appearances at the National Assembly “in line with the existing harmonious working relationship between the executive and legislative arms of government.” (Emphasis ours.)
That year, Senator Basheer Lado, the Special Adviser to the President on Senate Matters, stated that the Presidency frowned at reports of flagrant disobedience to Senate summons by some heads of federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
The Presidency’s intervention came a day after the Senate, through its committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, threatened to issue a warrant of arrest against those ignoring its invitations.
Two months later, on December 21, 2024, the House of Representatives Committee on Legislative Compliance was back on the same issue. Frustrated, it had to issue a seven-day ultimatum to 19 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government to comply with invitations to appear before relevant committees or face stringent sanctions.
According to the Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Yusuf Ahmed Badau, while referencing the serial contempt for its invitations, noted that resolutions are key instruments through which it exercises its oversight functions as enshrined in sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
There is more. On April 16, 2025, Senate President, Godswill Akpabio at a public function repeated the same problem, noting the damage caused by the MDAs impunity. He said, “When departments and agencies fail to comply with legislative directives, they undermine not just the authority of the legislative arm of government but also the collective will of the Nigerian people whom we all represent. When public institutions ignore legislative resolutions, when compliance becomes selective and when oversight is treated with disdain, the result is a breakdown in trust.”
With the Presidency’s intervention last Wednesday, the MDAs’ impunity has gone full circle and back.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, who announced the new order on Wednesday during a one-day stakeholder engagement with permanent secretaries and accounting officers on the implementation of the 2025 capital budget, explained that the requirement for warrants or AIEs, serving as proof of available funds, would ensure that payments to beneficiaries are made immediately after projects are completed.
Edun said the policy would make the payment process more rigorous and transparent, with suppliers, contractors and service providers receiving direct payments from the government.
At the meeting, the Accountant-General of the Federation, Samseldeen Ogunjimi, who also cautioned against breaches of financial regulations by MDAs, cited cases of awarding new contracts instead of completing ongoing ones, transferring funds to vendors before execution and spending internally generated revenue without approval.
It is disturbing how these MDAs have continued to display this level of disregard for extant rule and regulations and indeed, the enabling law with no known disciplinary measures taken by the appropriate authorities.
When tenured officials of government flagrantly disobey the law, then some deep -seated malaise yet to be properly noticed, assessed and addressed is gradually wreaking havoc on society’s social fabric as pointed out by Senator Akpabio. It is time to put an end to this bureaucratic circus.
We call on the executive and legislative arms of government to solve this cankerworm in the country and put the heads of departments in their places. Although it empowers senior lawmakers to issue warrants on disobedient government officials like the offending MDAs, the Constitution contains a lacuna in its relevant provisions wherein recommended sanctions are limited to payment of fees for the warrants issued.
We urge the lawmakers to take advantage of the ongoing debate on amendment of the Constitution to amend Section 89 (1d) of the Constitution, which “orders him (the person summoned) to pay all costs that may have been occasioned in the course of issuing the summons and any fine so imposed shall be recoverable in the same manner as a fine imposed by a court of law.”
This obviously weak clause must be quickly amended. Erring government officials who willingly break the law, fail to be accountable and transparent in budgetary and other matters must be checked and punished. As tenured officials, the impact of their work on the well-being of the populace is far too great to be treated lightly.
