Despite Auditor-General’s Warning, FG budgets N2.47 trillion as Service Wide Vote in 2022

The Federal Government of Nigeria has earmarked the sum of N2.47 trillion as Service Wide Vote (SWV) in the 2022 proposed budget, despite concerns around it.

A Service Wide Vote which is also known as the Consolidated Revenue Fund Charge is more or less the country’s contingency fund in the annual budget. 

It is a huge sum of money which is kept for unforeseen expenditures. The recurrent expenditure part of the fund is what is actually referred to as the SWV, while the capital part of it is called Capital Supplementation.

The SWV is domiciled in the Federal Ministry of Finance.

Samuel Atiku, an Economist and Policy Analyst, explained that the SWV is under the control of the President although the Minister leads implementation. For budgeting and approval reasons, it is not directly under the Minister’s control

In the 2022 proposed budget, the total recurrent which is the SWV stands at N1.91 trillion, while the Capital Supplementation at N561.29 billion, bringing the total sum to N2.47 trillion.

If the proposed budget is approved, the N2.47 trillion allocated to SWV will be the highest amount since 2015. A huge allocation, enough for the Senate to raise alarm over especially given the opacity of the funds.

In fact, the Senate House described the SWV as the biggest fraud in Nigeria, stating that even the Standing Committees of the Senate do not know anything about its spending. 

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Matthew Uhroghide, complained about the SWV noting that they [his committee] had yet to find out how disbursement for SWV both recurrent and capital expenditure are being utilised.

According to the Lawmaker, his committee has made several attempts in the past years to ensure that heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) give accounts of what they got from the SWV but all efforts have been futile.

The highly suspected SWV described by the Senate as “the biggest fraud in the country” makes up 15.07% of the country’s entire 2022 budget. 

Surprisingly, this huge fund has never been audited.

In a phone conversation with Dataphyte, Samuel Atiku noted that most of the SWV funds are slush funds. They lack proper breakdown as it is commonly done in normal budgets. Thus, making it easy for illegal acts and corruption to happen. 

Recall the $2 billion arms fraud Dasuki-Gate case in 2015, involving Sambo Dasuki, the National Security Adviser under the Goodluck Jonathan administration. According to Atiku, the $2bn arms fraud money was taken out from the SWV.

“The weapons Dasuki claimed he went to buy, the money was taken from the SWV and part of the Capital Supplementation”, the Policy Analyst said.

Atiku further noted that the N500 million Grass Cutting Scandal involving the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal was also under the SWV Capital Supplementation budget. 

The Policy Analyst lamented that because of the fact that SWC are slush funds – bulk allocations without breakdown, it is susceptible to corruption. The Dasuki-Gate arms fraud and Babachir Lawal N500 million Grass Cutting Scandal are clear examples.

There is also the problem of audit. Since the allocations are without breakdown, it is difficult to audit the money spent. This may have been the reason the SWV has never been audited as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts has claimed.

Spikes in allocation to SWV around election periods as shown by the data have also been cause for speculations on the use of the funds given Nigeria’s predilection for huge and unchecked campaign finance violations.

Dataphyte’s review of the 2019 audit report has shone harsh light on mismanagement of government revenue with MDAs acting as spendthrifts with little regard for the state of the country’s finances. 

It is hoped that the Auditor-General will do as he has assured the Senator House, to look into the issue of non-Auditing of Service Wide Votes and shine much needed light into the black hole of SWV. Perhaps Nigerians will finally get a proper explanation of what these huge sums are used for.