Alhaji Tunde Rahman, a senior aide of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has listed reforms that must be undertaken to prevent the kind of ongoing saga brought on the country by the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) with self-styled Director General Matthew Adeyemi Adeniyi.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Special Duties made this known in an opinion article he authored on Sunday.
The full article, titled: “PFIPC scandal and urgent reforms required,” can be read at: https://theeagleonline.com.ng/the-pfipc-scandal-and-urgent-reforms-required-by-tunde-rahman/
Rahman, who identified the loopholes in the system, said the reforms must be undertaken to prevent a future occurrence.
He wrote: “Arresting Adeyemi so he can answer for his serious misdeeds is necessary.
“However, that would not be sufficient.
“Stopping there would be akin to treating malaria with paracetamol.
“In my view, at least four immediate reforms are required at this point.”
Rahman identified the need for a budget integrity law.
He wrote: “No allocation should appear in the Appropriation Act without being scrutinised by the relevant committee and published with a sponsoring MDA, a legal instrument, and a staff list.
“A ‘ghost agency’ clause should trigger an automatic audit by the Auditor-General.”
The top editor, with experiences across Daily Times, PUNCH, and ThisDay among many others, identified the creation of an appointment verification portal as a necessary tool to check forgery.
He said every federal appointment letter must be logged on a public, verifiable portal managed by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).
He said Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) should not accept physical letters without a portal code, adding: “That way, forgery becomes instantly detectable.”
Rahman also suggested that the Federal Secretariat must have more access control.
He wrote: “A forensic audit of all offices, signage, and allocations in the secretariat is desirable.
“Any office space given in the last three years without SGF/HoS approval should be revoked and investigated.”
As a fourth suggestion, which is said is perhaps more important, “is the need for financial institution accountability.
“The CBN and commercial banks must explain how accounts were allegedly opened for PFIPC and 34 other ‘agencies’.
“The Bank Verification Number and Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) database should be crosschecked before any government-linked account is activated.”
Rahman added: “In the final analysis, Prince Adeyemi allegedly gamed the system.
“But systems are gamed because they are weak.
“The PFIPC scandal is a stress test, and the system failed at three points: budget, appointment, and banking.”