Civil service fraud: the elephant in the room……….

“Fraud against Government is a crime that directly or indirectly victimizes every

Person in the country ``` Dr James M. Hart, Independent Chairman, Smarter Government

According to the Collins English Dictionary 10th Edition fraud can be defined as: "deceit, trickery, sharp
practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage".
In the broadest sense, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another
individual; the related adjective is fraudulent.

Part 6, Chapter 38 of the Nigerian Criminal Code defines false pretence or fraud and this is criminalized
in section 419, even though fraud is a crime it also involves abuse of civil liberties. Although fraudulent
deception and all the other acts defined in Section 419A – Section 425 describes the various acts which
can be termed as fraudulent the common thread in them is the intent to deprive people or entities of
money or valuables, but there have also been fraudulent "discoveries", e.g. in science, to gain prestige
rather than immediate monetary gain.

The elephant in this case is the fraud that is being committed against the civil service by employees and
non-employees of the civil service. The civil service must take immediate action to remove the burden
from the public purse, and redirect the money to where it is needed most. Every penny wasted is a
threat to jobs, All states and indeed the nation as a whole – at a time when public have shown people
power and their ability to effect change in the just completed elections.

Yet the harsh reality is that the threat of fraud and error in the public sector is growing, due to a number
of unique factors. History shows that recessionary periods see an increase in fraudulent activity – both
organized and opportunistic, make fraudulent behaviour both more common and more difficult to
detect. Administration errors also rise as staff struggle to cope with additional workloads and the
understanding of daily duties is very limited and usually the role is developed without purpose and flow
of how it fits into the objective of civil service.

So the pertinent questions that need to be answered are: how can we win the Battle against Public
Sector Fraud AND ERROR? Can the state and federal government give some clear recommendations that
it believes would help to plug the huge losses? Does the state and federal government have an idea of
the loses suffered due to fraud and error? Is the civil service aware of existing infrastructure to help in
reducing fraud and error?
The whole process of recruitment and assigning roles and responsibilities lacks the necessary checks and
balance, with no accountability and periodic audits to reduce loopholes in the process. The elephant has
become so fat that it has turned states and federal offices into a cafeteria where food is supplied on a
regular basis as long as the actors in the comedy are present; actors are still making profit even if we do
not have any paying audience to watch the comedy. The elephant in the room provides all stakeholders
with the necessary profits and the only loser is the state and federal government. So who is this
elephant?

1. The breach of recruitment process in not checking staff before they are offered employment

2. The Ghost workers claiming to be working in the civil service

3. The unlawful charges imposed on members of the public

4. The unethical process carried out by staff

5. Unlawfully providing confidential information

6. The breach of procurement and other processes

7. The lack of audit trail activities

8. Lack of effective fraud reporting mediums

Detection

How do we intend to manage, monitor and identify the elephant in the room, there is a need to
introduce a fraud authority or fraud management unit to INVESTIGATE, IMPOSE SANCTIONS, IDENTIFY
and ERRADICATE the elephant where possible and also PREVENT and DETER the elephant from getting
any bigger, by continually exposing the elephant while creating awareness to all members of the civil
service and using fraud management as a way of increasing profit for the state/federal offices while
enhancing the reputation of the government officials and the state and federal offices as a whole.

This paper was written by Adewale Banjoko. CFE, who is also the Chairman of the GSM Africa fraud
forum (fraudmanagement@hotmail.co.uk)