Juliana Francis
The implementation of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund (NPTF) Act was the focus of a recent discussion at a Stakeholders’ Roundtable organised in Abuja by Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) and Partners West Africa Nigeria (PWAN) in partnership with Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJi)
Aside from reviewing the implementation of the act, the group also tried to assess its impacts on police operations.
The event was attended by over 18 participants drawn from the Federal Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Police Affairs, Nigeria Police Force, the National Human Rights Commission, Civil Society organistaions, the media, and the private sector.
The Executive Director of RULAAC, Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma, explained the objective of the meeting. According to Mr. Nwanguma, in order to address perennial underfunding of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the Nigeria Police Trust Fund (NPTF) was created by an Act of the National Assembly in 2019 to provide an additional funding source for the NPF.
He explained that the NPTF Act also establishes the NPTF Board of Trustees, which will be liable for investing money accruing to the Trust Fund, setting policies for training and retraining of personnel of the NPF, among others.
He also said: “The Act exempts the Trust Fund from the payment of income tax on any income accruing from investments made by the Trust Fund.”
It will be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Nigeria Police Trust Fund, Establishment, Bill into law on June 24, 2019, while the Board was eventually announced on May 6, 2020 after a one-year delay.
In May 2021, it was two years after President Buhari signed the NPTF into law and thus it became necessary to assess the application and impact of the Police Trust Fund on police operations.
It was against this backdrop that RULAAC in partnership with Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) initiated an intervention to interrogate how far the NPTF has achieved its set purpose of filling the funding gap and enhancing the operations of the NPF. The intervention was aimed at promoting transparency and accountability through independent scrutiny and interrogation of the application of the resources of NPTF and to disseminate information on the budget of the trust fund. The duration of this intervention was from May 15, 2021 to November 30, 2021
Among other ambitions, the project set out to interrogate the often-repeated problem of lack of funding for effective policing particularly against the backdrop of recent escalating crises of safety and security in Nigeria. Beyond the NPTF, the project also set out to collect and collate information on the recent attacks on police personnel and installations across the country – paying special attention to Imo, where the most recent seemingly well-coordinated attacks were witnessed.
Nwanguma said: “This intervention reviewed progress, or lack of it, in the implementation of the mandate of the NPTF with a view to ascertaining impact and making specific recommendations. This project builds on prior interventions with respect to building synergy between the police and communities in the Southeast of Nigeria, and monitoring the implementation of a 2020 directive of Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police to officers to minimize arrest and detention on account of simple offences.”
Nwanguman, who is also a human rights activist explained that two researchers were engaged in Imo State in May 2021 to research on the attacks on Police infrastructure in Imo State and the operations of the Police Trust Fund (PTF) since inception and to write a report with recommendations on how to improve operations.
Nwanguma said: “The Police Trust Fund Act establishes a legal framework for the administration and control of a special intervention fund for the training and retraining of Nigerian police officers, as well as the provision of state-of-the-art security equipment and other related facilities for the improvement of the skills of Nigerian police officers. The Trust Fund will operate for six years after the Act takes effect, after which it will cease to exist unless an Act of the National Assembly is passed to prolong it. The delay in forming the Board – one year after the bill was enacted into law – ate into the board's planned lifespan.”
According to the PTF Establishment Act, the Fund will consist of 0.5 percent of total revenue coming to the federation account, take-off grants, aids, and gifts, as well as 0.005 percent of net profit of enterprises doing business in Nigeria.
He noted that some key issues were raised and observations made at the roundtable, part of which were that the Police Trust Fund's early start was hampered by the delay in forming the Board of Trustees as required by the Act. Concerns were raised about the lack of a provision for a Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and wondered how a board without leadership would function.
He stated: “The police's function in this trust fund should be to communicate with the PTF before making decisions so that the PTF may be appropriately informed as to the true police needs, rather than imposing its command structure into the PTF. The fact that the PTF, like the Police Service Commission (PSC), is managed by a retired IGP will have an impact on its effectiveness and ability to achieve its goals. In law, trust funds are established to handle cash or assets on behalf of third parties known as beneficiaries, who should not be trustees. The PTF, on the other hand, does not follow this model, instead making the police both trustees and beneficiaries. The police, as the beneficiaries, should not be part of the trustees by law, as this could lead to a conflict of interest.”
Nwanguma said that between September and October 2020, the NPF conducted a needs assessment, which revealed that the NPF will require at least 1.8 trillion Naira for a year.
Nwanguma said: “The needs were compiled from all of the police agencies in the state, from A to H, and they were prioritized. It featured police vehicles, weapons and ammunition, protective clothing, communication devices, and other accessories. The assessment was sent to the Ministry of Justice for review and input before being sent to the PTF. It is unclear why this was done through the Ministry of Justice rather than the Ministry of Police Affairs, as the statute requires. Again, we witness interference from players who were not intended to be involved in the Act's implementation. Staff recruitment took longer than expected. Due to a lack of staff, there was a delay in getting funding.”
According to the participants, if the Trust Fund had been handled less like a ministry and more like a private sector company, this would have been addressed much more quickly. “The PTF will have a very limited influence if it is managed by civil servants, who have a culture of caution and a lack of focus on outcomes which could be highly harmful for the country,” Nwanguma opined.
He stressed: “The PTF is a method for speedy intervention. It requires quick action and should not be subject to legislative funding. It should be a first-line charge for its money. It should have no bearing on the financial situation. It should not be limited by bureaucracy. Participants were stunned as to why a government agency with 0.5 % revenue and 0.005 0% of company earnings would require budgetary allocations. The PTF should speak up about their problems and collaborate with civil society to make their problems and needs more visible. There is an inability to determine the extent to which the FIRS, the company tax collector, had complied with the provisions of the PTF Act due to the absence of the PTF representative at the roundtable, but there was some information about how the FIRS was finding it difficult to implement the Act's provisions, which refer to a 0.05 % 'levy' on net profit. Funds accrued to the PTF are unknown other than what has recently been published in the media as NASS approvals for the PTF, which cannot be referring to the funds in the PTF account, which the legislation explicitly indicates can be spent by the PTF.”
He stated as the general election in 2023 was approaching, the police would be faced with the dual problems of combating growing instability while also managing election security
In addition to these provisions, the Act makes it clear in section 20 that the Fund shall maintain a bank account into which shall be paid all funds. The question whether it should be free of the TSA system which would subject it to another layer of control outside the Fund structure is not addressed in this section.
The group recommended that there was an urgent need for an amendment to the Act. The lack of regulations about who is designated as Chairman of the Board of Trustees was one issue that has to be addressed immediately. In terms of leadership, the process starts, when board meetings are called, and so on, there is a substantial gap.
The group further recommended that, “the PTF should be independent of the police and government bureaucracy, and its beneficiaries may not have authority over it. The Lagos State Security Trust Fund has taught us this lesson. As in the case of the Lagos State Security Trust Fund, the Trustees, who should be independent of any beneficiary control in decision-making in accordance with the Law of Trusts, should make the decisions. The Act's financial and fiscal provisions are precise enough that the Fund should activate them instantly; a more elaborate explanation of some of the phrases, such as "levy" and "net profit" in section 4(1) (b), might be handled by amending the Act. There is a need to investigate and identify all barriers, as well as to amend the Act establishing the trust fund.”
It was also recommended that the staff of the Fund should not be civil servants seconded from different ministries but rather people with experience in accounting, quality control, supply chain management and procurement
He said: “The PTF needs to clarify exactly what amount is due to it from the various sources and how it can demand and access them through the office of the Accountant General and the FIRS. The BoT must not be hesitant in demanding its due on behalf of the police. The PTF must become visible, engage and communicate what they are doing and their challenges. Considering that two years of the six prescribed in the Act (section 2(2)) for the existence of the Fund have expired with very little achieved, the BoT must approach the remaining four years with urgency to justify all the efforts and expectations.”
It was also gathered that RULAAC tracked information on budgetary allocations, releases and other sources of funds for the NPTF and engaged the NPTF and relevant stakeholders on its findings and concerns.
In that process, RULAAC received some useful feedback from the NPTF and other stakeholders based on its advocacies. The organization also identified, trained and deployed researchers and monitors to Imo State to ascertain how the NPTF budget was implemented in the state from inception in 2019 until April 30, 2021.
One of the key outputs of the Roundtable was a Policy Brief which summarizes the purpose, structure, composition and operations of the NPTF since its inception, the challenges and obstacles to its effective application and recommendations on how to improve its effective application and impact on police operations. It also set out the road map for enhancing the operations of PTF.
The research produced a comprehensive report on recent attacks on police personnel and installations across the country with special emphasis on Imo State – demonstrating patterns, causes and consequences; providing specific recommendations. This report forms a basis for engaging the discussion about funding and appropriation for policing functions.
RULAAC also tracked and documented cases of attack on police stations between January and October 2021. The report of the research on PTF operations with recommendations on improving the operations of the PTF as well as documented cases of attack on police and other government infrastructure form part of this report.
Nwanguma explained: “The NPTF was a well-conceived mechanism to address funding deficit- to augment poor funding for the police - which has remained a perennial challenge to police operational effectiveness. Civil society advocacy contributed substantially to the conception and development of the Bill and its eventual passage into law in 2019. It took the President one full year after signing the Bill into law to constitute the Board of Trustees as required by the establishment Act. Consequently, the fund lost one whole year of its six years life span in the first instance. The Nigeria Police which is the beneficiary of the fund is also a member of the Board creating a conflict of interest. The fund is structured to be reliant on government funds rather than the private sector/ corporate entities. The fund could not take off immediately as it took one year after the Act came into force before the board of trustees was announced. The further delay in providing an office space, which, ironically, was eventually provided by the Nigeria police, staff and take off grant also delayed the commencement of operations.”
He said that the takeoff grant had not been released as at the date of the Stakeholders Roundtable, which was in June 2021. It was apparent that the takeoff grant was eventually released following the Roundtable, interface with the NPTF, engagement with stakeholders and the massive media reportage on these activities.
RULAAC and its partners have through these engagements created awareness of the NPTF, while also awakening and keeping the managers of the NPTF on their toes, aware that the budget and implementation of the PTF Act were being monitored and tracked by civil society and the media.
Engagement and scrutiny of public institutions helps to promote public and stakeholders’ awareness, participation and action, as well as elicit action by the agency under scrutiny. This project has enhanced the transparency and accountability in the implementation of the PTF Act to a large extent.
The public engagement and information dissemination about the PTF from this project no doubt provided the opportunity for the police- who are the primary beneficiaries of the NPTF - to speak up.
Nwanguma revealed that at the end of the Roundtable, the NPF representative spoke eloquently about the implementation of the trust fund and the police's expectations from the NPTF.
He, however, revealed that the NPF had not received any funds from the NPTF although a needs assessment was carried out by the police and sent to the NPTF. Police officers interviewed in Owerri during the research on the operations of the PTF were reluctant to speak because they considered issues of the PTF budget as confidential or official secret. The few who spoke on the condition of anonymity said no police formation across the Niger has benefited from the PTF and dismissed it as another 'government bureaucracy' and 'politics'.
The engagement also inspired media attention, focus and reports on the PTF, and compelled the NPTF managers to begin to respond by taking certain actions which culminated in the revelations about power struggle and mismanagement of funds.
“Owing to sustained media focus on the NPTF, it was not long before the power tussle between the Chairman of the PTF and the Executive Secretary came to the open with allegations and counter allegations of mismanagement of the PTF funds among the managers. Following a petition by some members of the PTF alleging fraud and financial mismanagement in the PTF, the independent corrupt practices commission (ICPC) commenced investigation in September.
As at October 2021, the ICPC was still investigating I the alleged procurement of substandard equipment totaling N11 billion by the management of the NPTF in scandalous breach of the Act establishing the NPTF, as well as the willful disregard of the recommendation of the KPMG report which clearly established the grounds for prudent management of the Trust Fund.
Nwanguma promised that RULAAC will continue to lead civil society efforts in tracking the budget of the NPTF and to generally monitor the implementation of the NPTF Act to ensure transparency and accountability.
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