Bayelsa committee report indicts Sylva over N660bn fraud

APRIL 3, 2012 BY MIKE ODIEGWU, YENAGOA 

Bayelsa State Governor, Timipre Sylva
| credits: File copy

The administration of the former Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr. Timipre Sylva, has been accused of mismanaging the N660.45bn it received from the Federation Account from 2007 to 2011.

Sylva was also accused of accumulating a chunk of the N207bn liabilities owed as domestic debts to various institutions by the state and frittering N50bn bond he received in December 2009 from the capital market without utilising the funds for the capital projects it was meant for.

These allegations were contained in the report of the 11-man Bayelsa State Financial Management Review Committee which was presented on Monday to the Governor of the state, Mr. Seriake Dickson, by the committee Chairman and former Presidential Adviser on Niger Delta Matters, Mr. Timi Alaibe.

The summary of the report showed that the state, under Sylva, received N99.5bn in 2007; N164.7bn in 2008; N106.3bn in 2009; N110.6bn in 2010 and N189.1bn in 2011 as revenue that accrued to the state from the Federation Account.

Alaibe, who read the report, lamented that though government expenditure increased from N165bn in 2007 to N208bn in 2010, large amount of the money was used to finance recurrent expenditure such as personnel, overhead and other contingency cost.

For instance, he said the recurrent expenditure maintained steady increase from 48 per cent in 2007 to 80 per cent in 2010 and 2011, observing that there was 48 per cent decline in capital expenditure within the period under review.

“This accounted for the absence of funds for the implementation of capital projects. In the same period, recurrent expenditure had increased to 123 per cent from 2007 to 2010. In contrast, there was 48 per cent drop in capital expenditure during the same period,” he said.

The report stated that a large amount of money was expended by the past administration from the state’s treasury without supporting documents, adding that ‘Security’ and ‘Government House Emergency Expenses’ subheads were used as a conduit to move the cash.

It further alleged that apart from the conventional security votes contained in the recurrent expenditure, Sylva’s administration claimed to have spent N3.3bn in 2010; N10.3bn in 2011 and N3.87bn for the January and February 2012 on security in a “state where there is no war”.

It added that Sylva withdrew N1.6bn in 2010; N7.4bn in 2011 and N155m in January and February 2012 from the treasury under the subhead ‘Government House Emergency Expenses.’

The committee said, “These payments were in spite of the regular monthly security payment made out of recurrent expenditure amounting to N3.19bn in 2010; 7bn in 2011 and N890m for January and February 2012. Clearly these payments are abnormal payments. They are frivolous and in fact fraudulent.”

Reacting to the report, Dickson vowed to implement the recommendations of the committee just as he lamented the collapse of institutions and processes in the past administration.

“It is difficult to believe that this kind of thing happened amidst poverty and so many challenges. Never again will the state return to the time when all institutions and processes vanished,” he said.

SOURCE: The Punch, 3 April 2012. http://www.punchng.com/