DG accused of financial recklessness

chika ebuzor

July 20, 2015 9:00 AM

The DG swapped me, a trained accountant with a statistician, who used to head the Planning, Research and Statistics section but I never protested.

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) Director General, Dr. Paul Orhii, is in the heat of what seems to be a major financial scandal.

The erstwhile Finance Director, Ademola Mogbojuri, has accused the NAFDAC boss of financial misappropriation.

Mogbojuri, who claims to have evidence of all the shady financial dealings of his former boss, said “I am not the one who wrote to Sahara Reporters or even petitioned the Federal Government on the crisis in NAFDAC as widely claimed. The truth of the matter is that the DG is quite reckless with spending.”

“Before he joined the agency in 2009, the annual total revenue of NAFDAC was about N2.5bn and he met around N600m in the account. Now, the total internally generated revenue is about N9bn and the agency owes about N5bn in debt,” Mogbojuri said.

Speaking on his deployment, to Kaduna, he said "The DG swapped me, a trained accountant with a statistician, who used to head the Planning, Research and Statistics section but I never protested. The posting they did on Thursday in which they moved me to Kaduna, I have not received the letter even as we speak, so how do I say I am resuming anywhere? This is the second time I would be redeployed within a month. The impunity in NAFDAC is too much.”

He also added that “Every month, I wrote about the financial position of the agency to the DG and supported it with relevant documents. Part of what we owe are government remittances which are about N1.4bn but he never allowed me to pay because he was scooping the money.”

“Some of the companies they use to carry out the deals have collected over N6bn in the last two years. Towards the general election this year, he collected a lot of money and used it to buy vehicles, which he branded and gave to a governorship aspirant in his native Benue State. The financial recklessness of the DG has brought NAFDAC onto its knees.”

In a surprised twist, the chairman of the NAFDAC’s workers’ union, Isa Ibrahim, in a press conference, said the former finance director always demanded for bribes before he releases funds.

Ibrahim also said “On numerous occasions the DG would approve funds to carry out some projects but the directorate of finance, rather than honour the approval, would tell us there is no money. The director in question was transferred recently to another section but he refused to go. He does not obey or regard the DG or any constituted authority. Nobody should be bigger than NAFDAC. It is an act of insubordination that we must not allow to continue.”

Pulse Nigeria will keep you posted as the matter unfolds.

chika ebuzor