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Of What Value Is The Nigerian Accountant To You? By Abdullah Musa I would like to start today’s discourse by giving a real life story. An elderly family man one day had a medical problem. He was in his house amongst his children, when the sensors built into him by his Creator told him it was time to go and release water (urine). A perfectly routine task, he headed to the loo. Unfortunately, this time round it was business unusual as the waste water refused to flow out. The pressure built up inside the bladder but the conduit couldn’t open up. To cut the story short, the family man started jumping up and down within his children, holding the blocked conduit and shouting: wayyo! wayyo! wayyo! The intervention of a medical doctor brought relief and restored the family man’s dignified composure. You may never have been sick, but the man in our story needs not to be told of the value of a medical doctor. So many of our brothers and sisters with whom we live as a community, do aid us one way or the other through their specialization. A vulcanizer, a mechanic, and given our type of society, even the achaba operator may save you from unpleasant situation. The accountant happens to be one trained to keep books of accounts and performs functions expected of an accountant. The accounting function has gone through some transformations in the form of other sub specializations: financial accountant, management accountant, auditor, treasurer and so on. To the layman, the easiest definition of an accountant is the person in charge of receipts and payments of monies in a given organization, particularly government offices. At the expense of being boring, it is the payment function that attracts more recognition, since by our nature who would want to pay government money unless under compulsion? Now if we are to concentrate on the payment function, would we be right to say that the average Nigerian is satisfied with the conduct of the accountants with whom he is forced to deal? My personal experiences from the sayings of people seem to suggest a resounding vote of no confidence. To start with, the average Nigerian accountant takes the mien that the monies in his (most of the oppressors are males) custody belong to him. To him therefore, whatever the reason that he is compelled to make payment to you (this does not have to include charity and donations) is not legitimate enough to make him pay you with a smiling face. If he has to smile, or if he has to pay you without too much tears in your eyes, then he would have to take a slice out of your payment. The successful contractor is one who knows how to handle accountants well; otherwise a Nigerian accountant can make a business man bankrupt for the simple ‘fault’ that the business man does not know his way around. The Nigerian businessman may take solace in the fact that the Nigerian accountant takes his colleagues in his work place who are not fortunate to be accountants as same to all outsiders in so far as they are to receive payment from him. Is he paying salary in cash? You must forego some of your change. Are you going on official trip while he is not? The anger would be visible on his face for the loss you have brought on him. We are ready to forgive, or even love the accountant were he severe on himself in relation to payments as he was on others. But he pampers himself, while he starves others. A naïve person like me might ask: are an organization’s payments not supposed to be planned for? Why should there be a contractual obligation without either cash resources or arranged credit facilities to pay for same at agreed period? No answer, because the accountant accounts only to himself and his bosses but not to the public. Our leaders, past or serving, had at certain times been accused of corruptly enriching themselves; some by mind boggling sums! The question that seems never to be asked is this: who facilitated the payments? Would a President, a Governor, or even a Chairman empty a treasure without the knowledge of the treasurer? Who was Almeseigher’s treasurer? Who facilitated the flow out of the Abacha loot? Who signed out the Balogun loot? What of the loot of that anointed Permanent Secretary of Defense? We never hear of them, they are not liable; or they simply fade out and re-appear as politicians with the financial muscles to win or steal elections. The Nigerian constitution provides for the setting up of the office of Auditor General of the Federation; and similar offices at the state and local governments level. Yet, frauds, diversion of funds, inflated contracts, and failed projects are the order of the day. You may remember that earlier we said the auditor (internal or external) is also an accountant. The external auditor has purchased an insurance cover when he says that the purpose of an external audit is not to discover fraud. It is granted to him in that he doesn’t have the time to vouch all the year’s transaction at a short period. But what of the internal auditor who is always resident, and who has established a vouching system that ensures that no voucher gets paid without bearing his stamp? Are frauds or diversion of funds not subject to the raising of vouchers? The un- informed may wonder how a tested system operating smoothly somewhere fails to do so in our own setting. The only reason why a system that had been well thought- out will fail to deliver the results is because collusion takes place. In a nutshell, operators of the system collude against a given society they are supposed to serve. This happens because the members of the said society are not well informed about what goes on in governments. How much is received, for what purpose and when may not usually be known. There is slight change in status with the present political dispensation where the amounts disbursed to the federating units are known through either print or electronic media. Some states even publish their monthly expenditure in broad headings. But the question is this: who is outside there in the society, outside the government structure who would keep track whether the stated expenditure had actually been carried out; if a project fully executed, and at reasonable costs? The tragedy is there seems to be nobody. Ironically, even opposition parties do not seem duly interested in real transparency or accountability. Which opposition political party ever gave us an analysis of an approved contract in terms of reasonable costing, quality execution, or even fair and level playing field for competitive bidding? None! Has the level of collusion gone to the extent that political parties are wary of digging deep into the conduct of opponents because they may also want to be treated with kid gloves when they garner power themselves? In Nigeria we seem to have a consortium of interest groups that agree on how to fleece the nation: of necessity the civil servant must be involved, (and in this the accountant is indispensable) the politician, the contractor-class, the banker, the security agent, the Ulama or Clergy, the labor unions, the traditional rulers. You may in bewilderment come to the conclusion that the enumerated groups form the leadership of any given society. The reader is perfectly right. The pervasive nature of corrupt practices could only have survived and be entrenched because nearly everybody who is supposed to oppose it is a beneficiary one way or the other; even in undue privileges that with proper democratic structure cannot be justified. So those who are literally outside the system are those without voice, without clout, and without weapon to fight. They can be ignored and there is no consequence. The conduct of elections (where the ballot could have been the most effective tool to fight injustice) had been such that popular will could be subverted and there is no consequence: there might be a flare up here and there, but after some time, the peasant cannot sustain it for obvious economic difficulties and gives up; returning to a now famous quote from one of the elites, status quo ante. The tragedy of Nigerian corruption, which the Nigerian accountant is the greatest facilitator, defies correction because the real victims cannot fight, cannot challenge it in a court of law, and cannot vote out the perpetrators; because ironically, the perpetrators are the ones that supervise the conduct of the elections! The present system is obnoxious only to those who are not part of the action, or those (like the author) whose slice of the cake seems too insufficient for them. In this case our wish could be: a fasa kowa ya rasa! How could it be otherwise when every Senator is now wealthy; every member of the House of Representatives! You are not going to waste your time making reference to those with executive position; or the alpha and omega of them all, the Nigerian accountant who has the single opportunity of holding the cash bag! A question to ask is this: who wants corruption dead or at least paralyzed? The foolish answer would be that the ordinary Nigerians. To me the strongest opponents to corruption whether they are sincere or not are the white men. This they do possibly because corruption makes it difficult for them to do business with us, or it makes it more costly. They are also responsible to their electorate, within who are powerful institutions and groups who have the wherewithal of making life difficult for their politicians if they are soft on corruption. The white men have come up with NEEDS, SEEDS, and LEEDS with a view to bringing budget and financial controls within the ambit of the citizens. On this they will insist on compliance to certain agreed bench marks, the violation of which may bar a State or Local Government from accessing development finance from donor agencies. This is a weak position, for how many Nigerian States are dependent on grants from Western donors before they execute projects? To my knowledge all Nigerian States and Local governments are dependent on federally collected revenue for more than 90% of their financial requirements. There is thus neither enough incentive nor penalty to comply with the bench marks. What is more worrisome is the attitude of those who are saddled with the responsibility of implementing the new process, where they perceive it as another passing fad that must be tolerated before it fizzles out. How are the likes of El Rufai, Ezekwesile and co created? What type of exposure did they receive that makes them arch believers in reforms? Or is it that they enjoyed the dollars associated with their various World Bank assignments such that they have no choice but to pay back their Masters by being diligent to their decrees? The main opponents of corruption (Western powers, not Chief Obasanjo, for he does not allow his cronies who are corrupt to face the wrath of the law) should internationalize the positions of accountants globally, such that they receive payment from World Bank in order to be able to enthrone globally acceptable accounting practice. They are to be rotated between nations and should mostly serve in countries other than their own. Other than that, any Third World leader with pretense to fight corruption should devise a special package of emoluments for accountants and auditors. No budget should be passed by National or State Assemblies unless there is an input from all the slated beneficiaries, and they should get copies of the approved budget and notice of disbursement from executing agencies. Community representatives other than an assembly member, who might already have joined the bandwagon, should always be present at tender meetings and their rejection of a process should disqualify such tender. Accounts of Federal, States, and Local Governments should be audited by external auditors (since Auditor General is part of the system). The fees for such auditors should be paid by the World Bank in any country where the World Bank is interested in instituting reforms. A strong and highly virile campaign should be funded to sensitize citizens that they have to pay enough taxes to pay the salaries and overheads of the Governments’ employees serving them. That way they would have the moral confidence to ask questions over the official conduct of those in authority. Lastly, my observation is that corruption is more endemic in nations that rely on the extractive industries to finance government activities. Is it because they do not really struggle to earn the proceeds that is why they fritter it away? Abdullah Musa Special Assistant to Kano State Governor On Societal Re orientation. |