ABUJA, JANUARY 21, 2017 – The whistle-blowing policy of the present administration has suffered its first major setback barely a month after it went into action.
Apparently acting as if it was unaware of the existence of the new policy designed to curb corruption in Nigeria, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has axed a director from his office for daring to expose financial fraud worth N70.6 million in the Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa, DTCA.
According to documents obtained by Vanguard, the amount, which was drawn from the Nigerian Technical Cooperation Fund domiciled with the African Development Bank, was withdrawn and mismanaged by some top officials of the Directorate for Technical Cooperation in Africa.
The amount in question was drawn by the officials under the guise of celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Nigerian Technical Cooperation Fund (NTCF) which was allocated $36,852.00, and monitoring of various projects executed from the Trust Fund across Africa. Another sum of N800,000.00 was meant for SERVICOM sensitization seminar to be carried out in the Directorate and the sales of boarded Government vehicles.
The Fund in question was from the Nigerian Technical Cooperation Fund (NTCF), a trust fund established by the Federal Government of Nigeria and domiciled in the African Development Bank (AfDB) to be jointly managed by the AfDB and DTCA on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
However, when he got wind of the diversion of the fund, Ntia Thompson, an Assistant Director with the DTCA, immediately reported the ugly development to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Inspector General of Police asking for protection.
Findings showed that although the EFCC waded into the matter and compelled the affected officials to refund the sum of N800,000, no further action was taken against the officials to refund the $229,000 which they had already taken.
But a few days after the EFCC had begun investigation into the scam, the whistle blower was summoned by the DTCA and queried on why he leaked official documents to the anti-graft agency and the media thereby exposing the agency to embarrassment.
Apart from that the IGP to whom the man whistle blower had sought protection, reported to the DTCA that the man was not under any serious threat and should not be afforded any protection.
Arising from the police report, the DTCA on December 19, 2016 formally suspended Mr. Thompson from work and asked him to surrender all property in his disposal to the agency with immediate effect.
The suspension letter with ref. No. DTCA/P.082 Vol 1 was entitled, “Letter of suspension from duty” and signed by Sanda Isah, Head, Department of Administration/Secretary SSAPDC.
The letter said, “You will recall that you indulged in a series of acts of serious misconduct bordering on “violation of official oath of secrecy”, “absence from duty without leave” and “disobeying lawful instructions from superiors”.
“Even though these acts were established to be heinous violation of the provisions of Chapter 3, Section 4, Rules 030402 (e, f, I, n, t, and w), management considered and meted on you the compassionate penalties of “letter of reprimand, letter of serious warning, and a query for abandoning official duties in defiance of lawful instructions from superiors, respectively. Yet, these infractions did not abate.
“It will also be recalled that on the 14th of July 2016, you wrote a petition to the Inspector General of Police in which you alleged threat to your life and that of your family members by the Acting Director-General, Mr. Mohammed Kachallah and Mallam Garba Alhaji Mohammed, Head of Programme Management of DTCA.
“In view of the weighty nature of this allegation, the police carried out a thorough inquest into the matter and turned in the final report. The report exonerated the two officers mentioned in the allegation of criminal intimidation thereby establishing that you made “false claims against government officials”.
“Against the backdrop of these serious infractions, the Inter-Ministerial meeting of the Senior Staff Appointment, Promotion and Disciplinary Committee met and looked into these issues in line with the provisions of the PSR.
The committee recommended for your suspension from office pending the outcome of a final report of a sub-committee set up on the matter.
“In view of the above, you are hereby suspended from office immediately in line with the provisions of Chapter 3, Section 4, Rules 030205 and 030406 of the PSR.
You are therefore directed to hand over all official documents/properties in your possession to the most senior officer in the unit.”
The Public Complaints Commission on Monday called for a re-conciliatory meeting with officials of the DTCA and the suspended officer but the DTCA insisted at the meeting that the PCC had no business dabbling into the matter.
It is not clear what government would do since it encourages whistle-blowing as part of its effort to rid the public space of corrupt officials.
Some monetary reward has been promised those who reports fraudulent acts that are inimical to the health of the economy.
