Following a presidential mandate to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to place an embargo on their accounts, the federal government’s online financial activities have been suspended as Ministries, Departments, and Agencies deal with a financial crisis.
LEADERSHIP exclusively gathered that all the MDAs have been stifled of funds to conduct normal or regular transactions with their vendors. It was learnt that contractors and suppliers of the agencies have not been paid their fees from May ending to date.
Multiple sources in the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, CBN and Office of the Accountant-general of the Federation confirmed the presidential embargo on the accounts of the MDAs to LEADERSHIP.
A director in the finance ministry who asked not to be named said the directive was given by the new administration to prevent civil servants, especially interim heads of the MDAs from engaging in sharp practices before substantive ministers are appointed. “It is a presidential directive that was given by the new government. The idea is to enable the president know what he met on ground and to be able to know where he is taking off from,” the director who should know said.
It was also learnt that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu gave the directive to conduct background checks into the books of the various agencies for proper accountability.
A very reliable source at Centre for Management Development (CMD) told our correspondent that when some staff of the agency went to enquire from CBN on why their authorised payments have not been paid, “we were simply told no reason. We are not paying those kind of transactions for now,” he said.