The seeming crooked alliance between corrupt government officials and the banks which help to facilitate illegal transactions for them, may be denying the Nigerian economy of much needed development and undermining the very purpose of governance, Business Day investigations reveal.
The ongoing Senate joint committee probe of alleged fraudulent practices in the Police Pension Scheme, has revealed that certain individuals in the Abdulrashid Maina-led sanitisation team, conducted illegal transactions with some banks, to the tune of N127 billion; N88 billion; N38 billion and N10 billion respectively.
"This revelation clearly indicates lapses in the system which will have to be addressed," says, Razia Khan, analyst with Standard Chartered Bank, London.
Business Day investigations also revealed that other funds such as the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), monthly allocations to States, Ministries, Departments and Agencies, are sometimes placed with banks, to earn interest for corrupt officials, often at the expense of developmental projects.
Friday Ameh, an energy analyst, sees it as the "greatest injustice against humanity" and says "the culprits should be seen as enemies of progress."
If the allegations are proven to be true, then it is in contravention of the money laundering decree of 2011, and this is causing much disquiet in the industry, especially amongst the regulatory authorities, security agencies and audit firms.
The law requires the banks for instance, to report to the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) transactions above N5million and N10 million, by individuals and corporate organisations respectively.
Business Day investigations also show that banks have bold inscriptions written in their banking halls, which state that they reserve the right to notify security agencies of transactions above N5 million and N10 million, by individuals and corporate organisations respectively, including any suspicious foreign transaction above $10,000.
However, with the ease with which corrupt government officials seem to navigate these laws and exploit the inherent loopholes to defraud the nation, most analysts are at a loss, as to the relevance of the regulatory agencies examination departments and the monthly, quarterly and yearly reports that the banks submit to the CBN.
Also coming under close scrutiny, is the palpable silence of the audit firms, which in most cases have turn a blind eye to the malpractices going on in the banks.
The CBN however insists that the relevant agencies must have been informed of the said transactions,
"The policy says placements above the threshold you mentioned should be reported to relevant agencies. As you know, it does not say reject them, so I don't understand the issue there, unless you have evidence that those placements were never reported at all, which I doubt very much", says Mohammed Abdullahi, CBN spokesman.
If such illegal placements were indeed reported, as claimed by the CBN, analysts say it may confirm the culpability of the corrupt officials, and the need for the relevant agencies to fast- track investigations into the matter and hand out indictments if necessary.
Speaking further, Khan said, "With the cashless scheme only being piloted in Lagos for the moment, it may well take some time before it affects behavior in the wider country. Nonetheless, the idea itself should not be faulted - even though full compliance may take a while to achieve. For regulators, it will provide an important boost to their monitoring abilities…in time."
At the end of the second monetary policy committee meeting for the year, held on Wednesday in Abuja, CBN governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, warned that banks found involved in illegal transactions, as revealed by the ongoing Senate joint committee probe of the old pension scheme, would be appropriately sanctioned.
Sanusi said he had had talks with the minister of finance, on the matter and that the apex bank stands to work with the report, as soon as it gets to it, sounding strongly that banks indicted therein would not be spared.
He also disclosed that the CBN would send in examiners to the affected banks, to determine their extent of involvement.
But the EFFC would rather prefer to be silent on its seeming failure to act on the anti money laundering decree, as several efforts, including an official request for reactions from the agency by Business Day, were met with no response.
In a related development, the reference in Business Day report on pension travel scandal relates to the former Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC).
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