By OBIOMA TORI

₦76.24bn Audit Queries: Cash Transfer Office Faces Questions over Missing Vouchers & Weak Controls

Audit Report Exposes Gaps in Social Protection Spending

A federal programme designed to support Nigeria’s poorest households has come under fresh scrutiny after auditors flagged ₦76.24 billion in questioned expenditure at the National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO).

The Auditor-General of the Federation’s report identified eight audit queries against the office for the 2023 financial year. The findings include payments without complete beneficiary records, transactions unsupported by vouchers, the failure to conduct prepayment audits and inadequate documentation of funds released for state-level enrolment.

Most notably, the NCTO reported transferring ₦33.75 billion to approximately 3.29 million households and beneficiaries across 35 states. Yet auditors could not independently verify the recipients because the payment vouchers lacked complete details and the agency withheld the Remita statements needed to check the transactions.

The report said the accounts staff denied auditors access to the statements, preventing them from matching payments against the National Social Register.

Consequently, the Auditor-General warned that the missing documentation exposed public funds to possible loss and raised concerns that ineligible or fictitious individuals could have received payments.

Cash Transfers without Verifiable Beneficiary Details

The conditional cash transfer programme operates under the National Social Safety Nets Project, a World Bank-financed initiative intended to provide assistance to poor households identified through the National Social Register.

However, the auditors found that the NCTO did not provide sufficient evidence to establish that the reported ₦33.75 billion reached the intended recipients.

Nigeria’s Financial Regulations require payment vouchers to identify beneficiaries adequately and provide enough information for transactions to be checked. Despite these requirements, the office failed to produce the records necessary to authenticate the payments.

The Auditor-General recommended that National Programme Manager Abdullahi Imam account for the funds, recover and remit the amount to the Treasury where required, and submit evidence of beneficiary receipt to the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committees.

The report also warned that failure to comply could attract sanctions under the Financial Regulations.

Prepayment Audits & Missing Vouchers Raise Further Concerns

The weaknesses extended beyond beneficiary identification. Auditors identified 215 payment vouchers worth ₦36.74 billion relating to December 2023 transactions that were paid without the required prepayment audits.

Instead of examining the vouchers before disbursement, the Internal Audit Unit reviewed them afterwards. This practice, the auditors said, contravened Paragraph 1705 of the Financial Regulations, which requires a 100 per cent prepayment audit of checked and passed vouchers.

The report acknowledged that the World Bank’s November 2021 project appraisal document envisaged compliance and operational audits without a prepayment audit system. Nevertheless, the Auditor-General maintained that the agency remained subject to Nigeria’s financial regulations.

He recommended that the funds be accounted for and recovered as appropriate, while those responsible for gross misconduct should face sanctions.

Meanwhile, a separate review found 101 payments totalling ₦4.62 billion in the “S&S/IDA Cash Book” without supporting payment vouchers. Because the agency did not present the documents, auditors could not establish the purposes of the transactions or verify the expenditure.

The report recommended recovery of the entire amount and identified the missing records as a breach of constitutional and financial requirements governing access to public accounts and payment documentation.

State Enrolment Funds Remain Partly Unaccounted For

The auditors also scrutinised funds released to states to enrol unbanked, poor and vulnerable households.

They identified 32 payments totalling ₦3.09 billion under the “NASSP SCALE-UP Cash Book”. Although the NCTO provided documents covering ₦2.74 billion disbursed to 34 states, ₦350.18 million remained unaccounted for, according to the report.

Furthermore, the supporting records lacked essential evidence, including beneficiary lists, photographs of enrolment exercises, signed attendance registers and activity reports. The omissions prevented auditors from establishing how the funds were used and who received payments.

Another query concerned ₦393.71 million that nine State Cash Transfer Units reportedly returned to the Treasury after failing to conduct enrolment exercises in 2023.

The NCTO attributed the failures to insecurity, disasters and other factors. However, it did not produce the Remita inflow statements or payment slips needed to confirm that the refunds reached the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

Nor did the office provide evidence that the affected states subsequently enrolled the intended beneficiaries. Thus, questions remained about both the refunds and the delivery of the programme’s intended services.

Procurement & Advance Payments Also Under Scrutiny

The report further questioned ₦280.42 million paid to payment service providers as a 30 per cent advance for a “last-mile solution” intended to improve the delivery of payments to beneficiaries.

According to the auditors, the NCTO made these mobilisation payments without advance payment guarantees required under Section 71 of the Finance Act 2020.

In addition, the contract files contained no adequate evidence that the providers had been selected through due process. The auditors found no prequalification documents, bidding records or technical and financial evaluations to justify the selections.

These findings raise concerns not only about documentation but also about whether the agency consistently applied the safeguards intended to protect public money before entering contracts and releasing funds.

Questions Span Buhari & Tinubu Administrations

The transactions examined in the report occurred in 2023, spanning the final months of the Buhari administration and the first months of Tinubu’s presidency.

Sadiya Farouq and Betta Edu served as ministers responsible for humanitarian affairs at different times during the year. The NCTO operates under the National Social Investment Programme Agency, which reports to the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction.

In January 2024, Tinubu suspended the agency’s chief executive, Halima Shehu, over alleged financial misappropriation. Shehu had previously worked as national coordinator of the conditional cash transfer programme.

Ten days later, the President suspended all four programmes operated by the agency for an initial six weeks, citing operational lapses and improprieties surrounding payments to beneficiaries.

Nevertheless, the programme’s stated reach continued to grow. In March 2026, Imam announced that its target had increased from 10.4 million to 15 million beneficiaries.

The audit findings, however, underscore the importance of verifying not only the number of people targeted but also the identities of recipients, the amounts actually paid and the evidence supporting every transaction.

SERAP Takes the Dispute to ECOWAS Court

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has also approached the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice over alleged diversion, irregular expenditure and failure to account for ₦78.8 billion allocated to cash transfers and social-protection programmes.

In its suit, SERAP is seeking an order requiring the Federal Government to account for the funds and ensure proper financial oversight of programmes intended to assist vulnerable households.

The organisation cited ₦76.24 billion in questioned expenditure involving the NCTO and ₦2.55 billion involving the National Social Safety Nets Coordinating Office. It has called for investigations and the recovery of any money found to have been misappropriated.

SERAP argues that failure to investigate the questioned expenditure and remedy financial-control deficiencies undermines the rights and welfare of vulnerable Nigerians who depend on social-protection programmes.

The legal action follows earlier calls for the publication of beneficiary records and explanations for payments made without prepayment audits or adequate supporting documents.

Recovery & Sanctions Remain Central to the Audit Recommendations

Across its eight queries, the Auditor-General called on the NCTO’s National Programme Manager to account for the questioned funds, arrange the recovery and remittance of amounts due to the Treasury, and submit supporting evidence to the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committees.

The report cites Paragraph 3106 of the Financial Regulations, which provides for an officer responsible for an irregular payment to explain the transaction within 21 days before personal recovery measures may apply. It also cites Paragraph 3129, which provides for sanctions for gross misconduct.

The Auditor-General ranked the NCTO first among federal agencies flagged in the report for payments without supporting documents, failures to conduct prepayment audits and failures to present paid vouchers for examination.

Ultimately, the findings highlight a fundamental accountability challenge: social-protection programmes must demonstrate not only that governments have released money, but also that the funds reached eligible households and were spent in accordance with the law.

Until the agency supplies the missing records and addresses the audit queries, questions over the questioned expenditure will remain unresolved.