Nigeria's Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, the ICPC, has submitted an interim report into the fictitious Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council, a body now widely regarded as a fake agency. According to the account presented on Channels Television, the case had all the makings of a political thriller, with allegations of bribery and forgery, whispers of a fake agency with an office tucked inside the federal secretariat, and even a suspicious budgetary allocation.
The commission acted on a directive from the President, who had ordered a thorough investigation into what he termed a fictitious presidential foreign investment promotion council within 30 days. Exactly 30 days later, the chairman of the commission appeared to submit the interim report and to brief the press on the findings, a timeline that underscored how quickly the probe was expected to be concluded.
Among the central findings, the ICPC said it had discovered and established that the man who acted as director-general of the council was never appointed by the federal government or by any authority of government. The commission added that the council itself was never established by any law, executive order or other valid instrument of government, effectively confirming that the body had no legal foundation whatsoever.
The internal report also identified weaknesses in verification, agency oversight and wider government processes. According to the chairman, those weaknesses were exploited to run the illegal operation, with some level of negligence and connivance on the part of officials. The commission found that some public officers had failed to carry out due diligence and had not adhered to the standard procedures that are supposed to be complied with in their ministries and departments.
On the strength of these findings, the ICPC set out its recommendations. It said the director-general at the centre of the scandal should be prosecuted, and that administrative sanctions should be imposed on the public officers whose acts, omissions and negligence facilitated the illegal operation of the council. On the issue of the alleged bribe, the chairman said statements had been taken and findings drawn, and that the criminal investigation was continuing with a view to filing charges before a court of competent jurisdiction against the director-general and his collaborators.
In parallel, the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee is continuing to receive the ministries, departments and agencies concerned as it presses its own inquiry into how the fake council came to operate. A representative of the State House Permanent Secretary refuted claims that a budget code had been generated for the body, and responded to claims that a correspondence had been sent to the Accountant General from the State House, purportedly signed by a director of administration and support services. He nonetheless acknowledged a failure on the part of government agencies, which committee members said ought to have verified the authenticity of the letters before acting on them.