The National Cash Transfer Office has rejected allegations arising from a report by the Auditor-General for the Federation that the Federal Government could not provide sufficient evidence that N33.75bn in electronic cash transfers reached genuine beneficiaries.
The NCTO management, in a statement made available to our correspondent on Wednesday, described the interpretation of the audit observations as materially incomplete, insisting that the questioned funds were transferred through the established payment architecture to beneficiaries captured in the National Beneficiary Register.
The NCTO also disputed the allegation that its officials obstructed auditors from accessing the REMITA payment records, saying documentary evidence, including emails showing the transmission of beneficiary data and payment information, was available for independent verification.
The Auditor-General’s findings were earlier reported by PUNCH on September 5, 2026, following the publication of the 2024 Annual Report on Non-Compliance/Internal Control Weaknesses in Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
According to the report, the audit reviewed transactions of the National Cash Transfer Office for the 2023 financial year and identified eight audit queries involving billions of naira.
The auditors noted that N33.751bn was said to have been electronically transferred to 3,295,207 households and beneficiaries across 35 states. They, however, said the payment vouchers did not contain full beneficiary details and that the REMITA statement required to reconcile those who received the funds with names on the National Social Register and National Beneficiary Register was not presented.
But the NCTO, in its detailed response, said the audit observation should not be interpreted as a finding that N33.75bn was stolen, diverted or lost. The Office stressed that an audit observation requiring clarification or supporting documents is different from a final determination of fraud or financial loss.
“An audit query or observation is not, by itself, a final determination that public funds were stolen, diverted, misappropriated or lost,” NCTO responded, adding that audit observations ordinarily require management responses, examination of supporting records and reconciliation before definitive conclusions can be reached.
Addressing the central allegation, the NCTO said the transfers were made electronically to identified beneficiaries under the programme’s established payment architecture.
It explained that beneficiaries were not paid simply on the basis of names submitted for payment but through beneficiary records maintained in the programme’s information systems and subjected to identification, validation and authorisation controls.
The NCTO maintained that the electronic nature of the programme meant that millions of beneficiaries’ records were maintained digitally and did not have to be physically printed and attached to individual payment vouchers where the underlying electronic audit trail was available.
“Beneficiary records underlying the transfers are maintained electronically and can be subjected to data-level reconciliation against the corresponding electronic payment records,” the office said.
More significantly, the NCTO said it had documentary evidence showing that the National Beneficiary Register was transmitted to the audit team.
According to the NCTO management, the 2023 NBR beneficiary list was sent to the auditors by email on April 18, 2025, at 11:48 am, while the 2024 and 2025 NBR records were transmitted on April 21, 2026, at 6:25 pm.
It said the emails contained identifiable dates and times and could be independently verified. It, therefore, rejected any suggestion that it deliberately withheld beneficiary records from the auditors.
The NCTO also specifically challenged the allegation that its accounts officials obstructed access to the REMITA statement, saying that the project accountant has retained email correspondence demonstrating that the relevant REMITA payment report was shared with the audit team.
It said the correspondence would be made available alongside the clarification to enable independent verification. “The existence of contemporaneous email evidence showing transmission of the REMITA report provides an objective documentary basis for establishing whether the payment information was made available during the audit process,” NCTO added.
The cash transfer office consequently argued that the allegation of deliberate obstruction was inconsistent with the documentary correspondence in its possession.
It maintained that the fact that millions of beneficiary records were not physically printed and attached to individual vouchers could not reasonably be interpreted as evidence that the records did not exist.
The office also responded to the Auditor-General’s query concerning 101 payments totalling N4.62bn from the S&S/IDA Cash Book. The audit had said the corresponding paid vouchers were not presented for examination and recommended that the money be accounted for or recovered and remitted to the Treasury.
However, NCTO said it maintains paid vouchers and supporting records relating to its expenditures. It noted that the audit observation aggregated 101 transactions into the N4.62bn figure without providing sufficient transaction-level details to enable its management to identify precisely which vouchers were allegedly omitted.
The office has requested a schedule identifying the individual payments, voucher numbers, dates, payees, descriptions and amounts. It said this would allow each transaction to be reconciled with its corresponding voucher and supporting documentation.
The NCTO also rejected the characterisation of N350.18m released to states for beneficiary enrolment as unaccounted funds. The Auditor-General had reported that of the N3.09bn released to states for the enrolment of unbanked beneficiaries, supporting documents covering N2.74bn were made available, leaving N350.18m without adequate documentation.
The audit also cited missing beneficiary lists, photographs, attendance registers, enrolment reports and acknowledgements. NCTO said it was resubmitting relevant evidence and remained available for transaction-by-transaction reconciliation.
It also disputed the characterisation of N36.74bn in payments as having been improperly made because they were not subjected to a prepayment audit. The Auditor-General reportedly found that 215 vouchers amounting to N36.74bn were paid in December 2023 without internal audit or prepayment checks, with the Internal Audit Unit instead carrying out post-payment checks.
NCTO said the applicable World Bank Project Appraisal Document expressly provided for an internal audit arrangement that did not adopt the conventional prepayment audit system.
According to the Office, the document required the Internal Audit Unit to undertake traditional compliance and non-financial/operational audits “without adopting the prepayment audit system”.
It therefore argued that the use of post-payment audit under the approved project framework should not, without the necessary context, be presented as evidence that the N36.74bn was improperly paid.
On the N89.51m store and procurement transactions queried by the Auditor-General, NCTO said the amount comprised multiple transactions and should not be treated as one homogeneous expenditure.
The NCTO also disputed any suggestion that the N280.421m advanced to Payment Service Providers remained outstanding. According to NCTO, the advances were made against insurance bonds associated with the contracts.
It said the World Bank subsequently reviewed the procurement and underlying activity, after which the contracts were cancelled because of compliance concerns and because the activity was no longer required following the restructuring of the project.
The office said the advances were subsequently recovered from the payment service providers and that REMITA/reference documents evidencing the refunds were available.
It maintained that any questions concerning the original procurement process should be separated from the issue of whether the money ultimately constituted a financial loss to the government.
The office further said N393.71m was returned by nine state cash transfer units that were unable to conduct the planned activities because of insecurity, disasters and other operational constraints, resulting in refunds of unused funds.
Contrary to claims that NCTO did not provide evidence that the funds were credited to the Consolidated Revenue Fund, NCTO said REMITA documentation shows the refunds had been provided for verification.
The office also addressed the N17.422m procurement observation relating to diesel, saying the diesel supply was undertaken through a company or service provider and that relevant vouchers and supporting documents were available and had been presented or provided for examination.
The cash transfer office said it welcomed scrutiny of its activities but urged caution in interpreting audit observations.
It argued that “a request for additional documents does not, by itself, establish that money is missing; that electronically maintained beneficiary records should not be treated as nonexistent merely because they were not printed; and that a recovered advance should not be presented as an outstanding financial loss”.
It also maintained that refunds supported by electronic payment evidence should first be reconciled before the underlying amounts are described as unaccounted for. The office stressed that it remains committed to transparency and would continue to cooperate with the Auditor-General and other oversight institutions.
It urged the media and the public to distinguish between audit observations requiring management response and reconciliation and established findings of fraud, diversion, misappropriation or loss of public funds.
Source: punchng.com
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