How Dikko Umaru Radda-led SMEDAN disbursed ₦1.3bn to 33 unverified contractors

SMEDAN disbursed over ₦2.47 billion in questionable transactions Q1 2020; topping it off by engaging 33 unverified contractors, contravening open contracting guidelines and financial regulations, leading Reporter 

• Data from the Open Treasury Portal revealed how SMEDAN, an agency of government, made suspicious payments worth ₦2.55 billion to more than 100 contractors in the first quarter of 2020;
• Worse, though, the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria engaged 33 unverified contractors, contravening financial regulations;
• Again, the non-descriptive payments further violated Open Treasury guidelines;
• The constant recurrence of fictitious transactions among MDAs in Nigeria amid guidelines raise questions on the weak sanctioning mechanisms in place.

Dr Dikko Umaru Radda, the director-general of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) signed cheques worth over ₦2.55 billion in the first quarter of 2020.

What is more? SMEDAN made these payments while violating open contracting protocols. That’s right, all the payments were without descriptions, a move experts have since condemned for being dubious. c

SMEDAN is the federal agency responsible for monitoring and coordinating the development of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises, MSMEs.

Dataphyte also observed a string of double payments to the same companies within the same month.

In all, these occurrences not only violate financial regulations and OTP guidelines but question the federal government’s sanction mechanism. After all, this is neither the first nor fifth occurrence of ‘invisible payments’ Dataphyte has noted. Or instances when a federal agency used unqualified contractors.

SMEDAN’s Payments Without Description (2020)

Rundown of Questionable “Double payments” 

Further analysis showed that Zomrites 24/7 Buss Solution Ltd got two payments the same day amounting to ₦33.5 million (₦20.3m and ₦11.25m). The agency also paid  ₦40.31 million to MA NUMBU GLOBAL INVESTMENT LTD on the 27th of March 2020. The same company also received the same amount on the 31st of March 2020.

On March 27th, SMEDAN paid ₦10.61 million to STONE CREEK GLOBAL VENTURES LTD. The same amount was also paid to the same company three days after. On the same date, it made a fictitious payment to FIRST MULTIPLE MICROFINANCE BANK LTD for the sum of ₦15 million and repeated the same amount on the 30th of the month. Within the same period, ZUHAFA NIGERIA LIMITED received ₦16.29 million on the 27th and 30th of March. Transactions worth ₦37.34 million each were also recorded for ESTIVUS NIGERIA LIMITED on the 27th and 30th of the month.

On March 16th, 27th, and 30th, it also paid ROYAL UM KM NIGERIA LIMITED the sum of N17.16 million, ₦17.88 million, and ₦17.88 million, respectively.

Continuing the trend on March 13, SMEDAN paid PINKWELL MULTI-CONCEPT LTD ₦12.09 million; thereafter disbursing two counts of ₦29.6 on the 27th and on the 30th of March. Overall, there were about 25 instances of these double-payments, all in March.

SMEDAN did federal business with 33 non certified contractors

Besides the contentious transactions, some of the companies are not qualified to bid or receive federal government contracts. Combining through the Bureau of Public Procurement’s website, Dataphyte found that most of the companies failed to meet basic requirements for bidding federal contracts. These requirements include prompt payment of workers’ pensions, company registration, remittance of federal taxes, among others.

For instance, G-Box Investment Nig. Ltd, which was paid ₦6.09 million on March 18th, 2020, for an unnamed service, is not tax compliant, according to BPP records. Also, ESTIVUS NIGERIA LIMITED, which got ₦75 million payment failed to meet tax (FIRS) obligations.

Further findings revealed that PINKWELL MULTI-CONCEPT LTD has no record on the federal government verified list of companies. Yet, SMEDAN paid the company more than ₦72 million in three batches in March.

Here’s a list of other unqualified contractors, 33 in total, viz:

SMEDAN remains silent over queries on OTP violations 

Efforts to reach SMEDAN for comments proved abortive. An official of the company who picked the reporter’s call hung up and failed to pick several calls after listening to the reporter’s questions on the fictitious and questionable companies. Several messages sent to the line were also not answered.

More so, Dr Dikko Umaru Radda, the Director-General of the agency, did not reply to messages sent to his official Twitter account.

Actions violate financial regulations 2009 and OTP guidelines 

SMEDAN fictitious payments to unverified companies violated Section 113 (i) of the Financial Regulations 2009 and the Public Procurement Act, 2007. The Procurement Act mandated all procurement to pass through the “National Competitive Bidding’ and bidders must be registered or incorporated to carry on business under Nigerian law.

Moreover, SMEDAN omission of crucial details on the OTP continues to defeat the transparency and accountability initiative of the Federal Government’s open portal.

The Open Treasury Guidelines mandated all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of government to ensure strict compliance with all reporting parameters. These are for payments MDAs make above ₦5 million. The parameters include Payment No, Payer Code, Agency, Beneficiary Name, Amount, and Description.

Despite this, several government parastatals continue to ignore this crucial aspect of the guidelines. In 2019, Dataphyte raised alarms over zero description transactions worth ₦510 billion. So far, in 2020, payments worth ₦210.4 billion have been masked by President Buhari’s administration.

Experts call for sanctioning of erring MDAs

These developments strengthen opaque processes in MDAs, and in turn corruption. And as a consequence impedes civil society and media organisations from tracking budget items and public procurement.

Giving opening remarks at the #FollowCOVID19Money Mega National Town Hall Meeting on Tuesday, December 8th, 2020, Hamzat Lawal, founder of Connected Development (CODE), urged governments at all levels to ensure that strict measures are in place for MDAs flaunting financial regulations.

Mr Iyanu Bolarinwa, Civic Hive’s Community Manager, also urged the Federal Government and the anti-corruption agencies to ensure proper sanctioning for any MDA erring against the Open government transparency initiative.

“It is not enough to release data on OTP and NOCOPO, but ultimately important to follow various procurement and open governance regulations. MDAs need to understand this and follow it to the letter,” Mr Bolarinwa added. Newscredit: Dataphyte