Secrets Reporters
The National Water Resources Institute, Kaduna, paid two contractors ₦11,941,923.38 for Information and Communication Technology related services in 2023 without obtaining the federal clearance that is supposed to precede any such procurement. This is revealed by SecretsReporters.
The payments were made without evidence that the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) approved them, a step every federal agency is required to take under Paragraph 4 of Establishment Circular Ref. No. 59736/S.2/C.II/125, issued on 31 August 2018. The circular is unambiguous: no IT project or component can be implemented or procured without NITDA’s sign-off, and agencies are expected to obtain that approval before committing public funds, not after.
When confronted with the finding, the Institute’s management did not deny making the payments. Instead, it said it had relied on an earlier NITDA approval, Reference No. ITPC/0252/00671, which it believed covered other similar procurements. Management promised to obtain fresh clearance for every IT procurement going forward.
That explanation, however, does not satisfy the examiners. The circular requires project specific approval, not a blanket clearance carried over from a previous procurement. Relying on an old reference number to justify a new set of payments does not meet the standard the regulation sets. Paragraph 3106 of the Financial Regulations 2009, which deals with irregular payment, applies to the finding.
Professor Emmanuel A. Adanu was Director-General of the Institute from 2015 and was in office throughout the 2023 financial year, the period covered by the record. Dr. Abduljalal Danbaba currently holds the position.
The Institute is one of the federal agencies responsible for building capacity in Nigeria’s water sector, a mandate that depends heavily on modern IT systems for research, data management and training. The very equipment at the centre of the finding is tied to that mandate, which makes the absence of proper clearance all the more difficult to explain.
The recommendation directs the Director-General to account for the ₦11,941,923.38 before the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee, recover and remit the money to the Treasury, and provide evidence that it has been remitted.
The finding adds to a growing list of procurement irregularities across federal agencies, where regulators’ approval requirements are routinely treated as optional rather than mandatory. In this case, the amount is relatively modest, but the principle at stake is not. NITDA clearance exists to ensure that federal IT spending is standardized, secure and properly planned. Bypassing it, whether through oversight or assumption, undermines the entire framework.
