Following World Bank\u2019s approval of $114.28million credit and grant to fight Covid-19 in Nigeria, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked the global financial institution to prevail on the federal and 36 state governors to accept voluntary scrutiny by Nigerians and civil society regarding the spending of the funds.
\nSERAP, in an open letter to the World Bank President, Mr. David Malpass, dated August 8, 2020, and signed by SERAP Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, said \u201cthe Nigerian government must be made to publicly commit to transparency and accountability in the spending of the fund, including by publishing details on a dedicated website.
\n\u201cDetails of how they will spend the money to buy medical equipment, and improve access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene, must also be made public\u201d, SERAP demanded.
\nThe World Bank Board of Directors, had last Friday, approved $114.28million financing \u201cto help Nigeria prevent, detect and respond to the threat posed by Covid-19 with a specific focus on state level responses.\u201d
\nAccording to the bank, the $100million credit with Project ID number: P173980, is due to be paid back over 30 years, with additional five years grace period.
\nBut SERAP in its letter said \u201cThe World Bank has a responsibility to ensure that federal authorities and state governments are transparent and accountable to Nigerians in how they spend the approved credit and grant.
\n\u201cThe bank should tread carefully in the disbursement of funds or distribution of resources to states if it is to reduce vulnerability to corruption and mismanagement.\u201d
\nSERAP expressed \u201cserious concerns that the money and resources may be stolen, diverted or mismanaged by state governors without effective transparency and accountability mechanisms, especially given increasing reports of allegations of corruption and mismanagement of Covid-19 funds by agencies of the Federal Government and state governments, and impunity of perpetrators.\u201d
\nSERAP said: \u201cInsisting on transparency and accountability would ensure repayment of the credit, and protect the project objectives and intended purposes for which the funds and resources are approved, disbursed and distributed.\u201d
\nAccording to SERAP, \u201cThe Bank\u2019s power to provide credits and grants is coupled with a fiduciary responsibility to ensure that governments spending such funds meet international standards of transparency and accountability, including those entrenched in the UN Convention against Corruption to which Nigeria is a state party.\u201d
\nThe letter copied to the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, read in part: \u201cImplementing these recommendations would prevent a repeat of alleged diversion and mismanagement of recovered Abacha loot disbursed by the Federal Government to state governments.
\n\u201cThe World Bank should make clear to all the governors that it will cancel the credit and grant should they renege on their transparency and accountability commitments to spend the money and use the resources exclusively for Covid-19 related projects, and not to steal, divert or mismanage them.\u201d
\n\u201cAs the level of Federal Government monitoring of the spending of the credit and grant and use of the resources by state governors may be based on political considerations, the bank\u2019s influence might be the only restraining force state governors will take seriously.
\n\u201cSERAP encourages you and the World Bank in any future engagements with state governments in Nigeria to insist on accessing information on how governors are spending security votes, and the amounts of public funds states are allocating to pay former governors life pensions, among others, as well as consider the level of corruption within each state before approving any credits and grants.
\n\u201cSERAP also encourages you and the World Bank not to sacrifice international standards of transparency and accountability in the rush to provide Covid-19 credit and grant to the 36 state governments.
\n\u201cAccording to our information, the World Bank Board of Directors on Friday, August 7, 2020 approved $114.28million financing \u2018to help Nigeria prevent, detect and respond to the threat posed by Covid-19 with a specific focus on state level responses\u2019.
\n\u201cThis includes $100million credit from the International Development Association (IDA) and $14.28million grant from the Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility.
\n\u201cSERAP notes that the Government of Nigeria is expected to disburse the money and distribute the resources to the 36 state governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as \u2018immediate support to break the chain of Covid-19 local transmission and limit the spread of Coronavirus through containment and mitigation strategies.\u2019
\n\u201cThe approved money will also \u2018help to finance federal procurements of medical equipment, laboratory tests, and medicines to be distributed to the states based on their needs, and to provide support to laboratories for early detection and confirmation; equipping and renovating isolation and treatment centres, including community support centres; and improving in patient transfer systems through financing of ambulances and training\u2019.\u201d
\nSERAP, therefore, urged Malpass and the World Bank to: \u201cDisclose and widely publish the terms and conditions of the credit and grant, and the exact amount repayable by Nigeria in 30 years\u2019 time, including the details of the interest, if any; and the consequences of Nigeria defaulting.
\n\u201cTo also ask President Muhammadu Buhari to instruct the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to jointly track and monitor spending of the credit and grant by state governments; ask state governments to allow the media to freely report on their spending of the funds and use of the resources, and not to clampdown on journalists and the media in the exercise of their constitutional responsibilities to expose corruption and hold governments to account.
\n\u201cTo also ask state governments to explicitly commit to encouraging and protecting whistle-blowers as a way of ensuring that the funds and resources are not stolen, diverted or mismanaged; clarify if any, to the Bank\u2019s knowledge and information, the credit and grant have been approved by Nigeria\u2019s National Assembly pursuant to its constitutional duties, including its oversight functions under Section 88 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
\n\u201cEnsure increased transparency of sanctions and terms and conditions of the credit and grant to each state to enable Nigerians to ask questions as to the spending of the money and use of the resources from their state governments.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Following World Bank\u2019s approval of $114.28million credit and grant to fight Covid-19 in Nigeria, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked the global financial institution to prevail on the federal and 36 state governors to accept voluntary scrutiny by Nigerians and civil society regarding the spending of the funds. SERAP, in an open […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":175690,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[688],"class_list":["post-239064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-front-pix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=239064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/175690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=239064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=239064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=239064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}