A Race against Corruption at the Supreme Court

The judiciary always claims that it goes cap in hand begging for funds to meet its obligation, but the revelations in an audit report by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation has shown that the Supreme Court spent over N12 billion in breach of financial regulations for five years, thus exposing possible endemic corruption in the judiciary, Wale Igbintade writes

An audit report by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (OAuGF), which revealed that the Supreme Court spent over N12 billion in breach of financial regulations for five years may have again exposed the endemic corruption in the judiciary.

The report, which was released in December 2023, recommended that the current Chief Registrar of the court, who is the accounting officer of the court, Hajo Sarki-Bello, should recover the funds and remit them to the treasury.

The report covers the expenditures and finances of ministries, departments and agencies of the federal government for the 2020 fiscal year.

But for the Supreme Court, it covers major transactions executed from 2017 to 2021. Highlights of the issues raised concerning the transactions totalling N12.335 billion in the 2020 audit report, according to Premium Times, include payments for contracts without budgetary provisions, diversion of government assets for private use, inflation of contract price, irregular award of contracts and overpayment to contractors, among others.

During the period of the controversial payments highlighted by the report, Justice Walter Onnoghen was the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) (2016 and 2019), and was succeeded by his successor, Justice Tanko Muhammad, who was CJN between 2019 and 2022.

While Justice Onnoghen was removed from office under controversial circumstances in 2019, Justice Muhammad abruptly resigned from office citing health issues in June 2022 after an unprecedented protest from his colleague at the Supreme Court about his handling of the finances and other affairs of the court at the time.

Recall that in a letter in June 2022, 14 justices of the apex court accused the CJN of abandoning his responsibilities as the leader of the court.

According to the letter, some justices who were sworn in two years ago lack residential accommodation at the court. Another issue the justices raised was concerns about decrepit vehicles with several due for replacement, while “some of the vehicles supplied to the justices are either refurbished or substandard,” as Justice Muhammad refused “to address this problem.”

On the issue of overseas training, the CJN was accused of gallivanting with his “spouse, children and personal staff,” while depriving the rest of the judges of the Supreme Court of such luxury. On two occasions when the judges travelled overseas for the training, they said, they were not allowed to go with an assistant as it used to be under previous administrations.

But Justice Muhammad, while reacting to the protest letter by his colleagues in a statement issued by his spokesman, Isa Ahuraka, said he did not want to join issues with the justices, adding that the circulation of the letter was akin to “dancing naked at the market square”.

He said the lack of funds owing to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic affected the operations of the apex court.

The auditor-general’s report has however, exposed the sleazy that took place under his leadership.

In one of the key violations of extant regulations, the report, according to Premium Times, revealed that the Supreme Court appropriated and received the sum of N645 million for the procurement of broadcast equipment in 2017. However, the court failed to produce “relevant documents such as vouchers, vote book, store receipt vouchers, store ledger and invoices” for audit.

Following the inability of the court to provide any explanation for its failure to tender the documents, the audit report attributed the “anomalies” to “weaknesses in the internal control system at the Supreme Court.”

Also, the report said, contrary to constitutional provisions and financial regulations, the court funnelled over N10.223 billion through 124 vouchers to “various beneficiaries” in 2020. But the paid vouchers and other supporting documents were not presented for audit, the report said. Citing a case of irregular award of contract and overpayment to a contractor, the report requested the Chief Registrar to justify the sum of N826.75 million to the National Assembly.

In addition, it asked the Supreme Court’s chief registrar to recover the N826.75 million and remit it to the national coffers, as failure to do so would attract statutory sanctions in the Financial Regulations (2009).

Narrating the circumstances around the issue of overpayment to a contractor, the report revealed that a contract was awarded for the construction of an access road to justices’ quarters (Yellow Houses) in Abuja in April 2021, the twilight of Ms Uwani-Mustapha’s exit from the Supreme Court.

The contract was awarded at the cost of N990 million (N990,494,207.80 in total). The level of work done was valued at 50 per cent, which should have amounted to N495 million (N495,247,103.90).

But “the contractor was paid N827 million (N827,075,713.04 in total) being 83.5 per cent of the contract sum resulting in an overpayment of N331,815,559.61,” the report said, adding that the court offered no explanation for the violation.

In another instance, the court awarded contracts totalling N371.5 million (N371,541,636 in total) for supplies, works and services in 2017 without budgetary provisions. However, payments amounting to N112 million (N112,117,106.37) were made in 2018, 2019 and 2020 “with no evidence of appropriation.”

The report also uncovered the sale of four landed properties belonging to the court in Lagos. The plots of land located at 72 Alexander Avenue, 2 Club Road, 20 Cameron Road and 15 Ikoyi Crescent, all in Abuja, were “disposed of without following due process.”

It added that “evidence of the disposal such as authorisation, report from board of survey, engagement of auctioneers, advertisement, proceeds from disposal, among others, were not produced for audit.”

In a case of illegal possession of government property, the report said the Supreme Court paid over N3 billion for 45 vehicles between the 2017 and 2021 fiscal years.

Giving details of the vehicle purchase, the report disclosed that 18 of the 45 vehicles costing over N515 million were attached to seven justices of the Supreme Court for official use.

But after the justices retired from the court, the official cars attached to them were not returned for inspection, a scenario the report described as “diversion of government assets for private use.”

Very often, the judiciary has been accusing the executive and legislature of allocating a paltry sum to it. It always complains of going cap in hand to beg for funds in order to meet its obligations, without giving a detailed account of how it has spent the one it expended. 

So bad is the opacity of the National Judicial Council (NJC) and its lack of accountability that lawyers and anti-corruption activists often challenged it to be transparent with its finances. Indeed, the situation was worrisome in 2022, when the then Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, tasked the council to open its budget to public scrutiny for the sake of transparency.

In May 2022, a retiring Justice of the Supreme Court, Ejembi Eko, in his valedictory speech, lamented the corruption in the handling of the finances of the judiciary. He, therefore, called on anti-corruption agencies to investigate the financial records of the judiciary.

“Nothing stops the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, the ICPC and other investigatory agencies from opening the books of the judiciary to expose the corruption in the management of their budgetary resources…that does not compromise the independence of the judiciary. Rather, it promotes accountability,” Justice Eko had said.

Justice Abdu Aboki, who also took advantage of his valedictory speech while retiring from the Supreme Court bench, called for financial transparency and accountability in the judiciary.

In the valedictory speech which he subtitled, ‘My valedictory messages to the nation and judiciary in particular,’ he called on “those in charge of administering the funds allocated to the judiciary” in Nigeria “to be prudent, transparent and accountable.”

In a more direct and critical tone, another Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Dattijo Muhammad, while retiring as the second most senior justice of the court in October 2023, alleged widespread corruption in the Nigerian Supreme Court and down the hierarchy of the judiciary.

Turning on the handlers of the funds allocated to the judiciary in his valedictory speech last October, Dattijo Muhammad, who was one of the 14 justices that authored the protest letter sent to the then CJN, Justice Tanko Muhammad, in June 2022, said despite the “phenomenal” increase in the judiciary’s budgets over the years, there had been no commensurate improvement in the welfare of judges. He similarly called for a probe of the judiciary’s handling of its funds. beamed to unravel how the sums were expended. Indeed, the judiciary stinks.