E-payment here to stay, govt insists
From Martins Oloja, Abuja Bureau Chief
CONVINCED that the e-payment system introduced for federal financial transactions from January 1 this year is capable of institutionalising financial probity in the federal bureaucracy, President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has declared that despite initial hiccups and stiff resistance, the policy is irreversible.
The e-payment regime, unveiled by the Accountant-General of the Federation on January 28, 2009 in a meeting with directors of finance and accounts and other stakeholders at the National Universities Commission auditorium has reportedly created some ripples within the federal civil service and the labour movement that has decried the slow pace of implementation.
The new financial instrument is believed to have delayed January salaries of public servants in the ministries, departments and agencies as accounts officers are still grappling with the modes of implementation.
Specifically, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said the new payment process should be suspended to avoid hardship that has trailed its implementation.
But The Guardian learnt that as opposition to the new policy intensifies in Abuja, the Accountant General of the Federation, Ibrahim Hassan Dankwabo, has continued to spread the gospel of the inevitability of the policy even as he holds workshops and seminars with stakeholders. Chief accounting officers - permanent secretaries - have been warned that they risk jail if they try to circumvent the new financial guidelines.
Meanwhile, The Guardian learnt that even the Defence Headquarters has felt the impact of the new deal, which has reportedly taken its toll on the morale of the officers. But the impact is mixed in the military where the policy has been fully complied.
According to a source, the e-payment regime has on the one hand, removed all vestiges of "ghost soldiers/workers" that the authorities have found ticklish to remove over the years.
In the same vein, The Guardian learnt that all the military pension offices that had introduced e-payment long before now had recorded significant drop in corruption which had always dogged transactions in the pensions offices of the military.
In the federal bureaucracy mainstream, The Guardian learnt, the policy has hit the finance and accounts departments like a thunderbolt as it has eliminated physical contact with even contractors and service providers that have to be paid.
In fact, the office of the AGF has retrieved all forms of cheques from the accounts, as they will no longer be needed for payments anymore.
Specifically, the AGF had on February 10 made a technical presentation to all the federal permanent secretaries in Abuja on the implications of the new payment regime.
President Yar'Adua has reiterated that the policy is irreversible and violators will be severely dealt with.
In an interview with The Guardian, the Adviser, Media and Publicity to the President, Mr Olusegun Adeniyi, declared: "The Presidency is aware that some people are not happy about the e-payment regime and that is no surprise considering that it has effectively blocked one big avenue of corruption..."
"The attitude of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has been that prevention is better than cure and that explains why emphasis has been on mechanism to ensure that corruption is nipped in the bud from the roots rather than glamorise it after the deed had been done...Mark this resolve of the president in his words: 'All areas of leakages in the system will be blocked so that resources can be properly channelled for development.'"
A source in the AGF's office disclosed mid-week: "There is a serious resistance because already, the e-payment has been revealing huge sums of money that had hitherto gone into payment of ghost workers."
The source added that "expenditure that could hitherto not be explained can now be tracked."
In fact, The Guardian learnt that one of the three arms of government had gone with a N3 billion worth of cheque for cashing but was stopped, because of the AGF's Treasury Circular dated October 22, 2008 on implementation of e-payment from all funds of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
According to a finance ministry source, "one bank may face sanction for flouting the directive on e-payment."
The new policy is said to be receiving positive responses from contractors who were quoted to have told government: "We will no longer be held to ransom by accounting officers in the MDAs as there will be no contact thus making payment processes faster and easier."
According to a brief from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, "e-payment can be described as effecting payments from one end to another end through the medium of the computer without manual intervention beyond inputting the payment data...Generally, we think of electronic payments as referring to online transactions on the Internet, there are actually many forms of electronic payments...."
The OAGF listed the gains to the permanent secretaries at the February 10, 2009 meeting to include:
- Easy tracking of payments to beneficiaries' accounts, hence it will assist Audit Trail;
- it will reduce cases of corruption;
- it will assist corruption fighting agencies like the EFCC, and the ICPC in cases of investigation;
- it is the beginning of cashless society;
- overall increase in the efficiency of operation;
- real time reporting and elimination of writing of cheques.
