Nigeria Orders Four-Year Accounts Audit as South Africa Arrests Nine in R75 Million Tender Fraud
Nigeria's House of Representatives has directed the Accountant-General and Auditor-General to produce four years of federal accounts while investigating N9.8 billion in GIFMIS payments, as South Africa's Special Investigating Unit secures arrests in a separate R75 million water tanker procurement scandal.
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Nigeria's House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee has ordered the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Office of the Auditor-General to produce comprehensive federal accounts spanning four years, while simultaneously launching an investigation into N9.8 billion (approximately $6.2 million) in payments processed through the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS).
The directive, issued on 17 February 2026, represents an escalation in parliamentary oversight of federal financial management systems. According to This Day, the Public Accounts Committee's instruction targets potential irregularities in the GIFMIS platform, which processes the majority of federal government transactions. The N9.8 billion payment probe focuses on transactions flagged for lacking proper authorization documentation or failing to follow established procurement protocols.
GIFMIS, implemented to enhance transparency and accountability in public financial management, has faced recurring criticism over unauthorized payments and weak internal controls. The four-year accounts review will cover fiscal years 2022 through 2025, a period that includes significant pandemic-related expenditure and multiple supplementary budget implementations. The committee has not specified a deadline for the Accountant-General and Auditor-General to comply with the production order.
South African Tender Corruption Yields Nine Arrests
In a parallel development highlighting regional procurement corruption challenges, South Africa's Special Investigating Unit (SIU) announced the arrest of nine individuals connected to an irregular R75 million ($4.1 million) water tanker tender. The SIU probe, as reported by The Citizen, uncovered systematic irregularities in the procurement contract for trucks, water tankers, and jet vacuum tankers.
The arrests follow a multi-month investigation into tender processes that violated South Africa's Public Finance Management Act and preferential procurement regulations. The SIU welcomed the law enforcement action, stating that the arrests demonstrate consequences for officials and private sector actors who exploit public procurement systems. The investigation revealed collusion between government officials and private contractors to circumvent competitive bidding requirements, inflating contract values and compromising service delivery.
The water tanker tender irregularities mirror patterns identified in other South African procurement scandals, including a separate multimillion-rand emergency tender at Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) that remains unused three years after award. According to The Citizen, the Acsa emergency Electronic Travel Document (ETD) tender involved irregular procurement processes, late delivery of equipment, and millions of rand spent before completion of mandatory audits. The equipment procured under emergency provisions has sat idle since 2023, raising questions about procurement justifications and oversight failures.
Regional Accountability Mechanisms Under Scrutiny
The simultaneous accountability actions in Nigeria and South Africa underscore persistent governance challenges across Africa's largest economies. Both countries maintain sophisticated financial management systems and anti-corruption institutions, yet continue experiencing significant procurement irregularities and financial control breakdowns.
Nigeria's GIFMIS was designed with World Bank technical assistance to centralize payment processing and reduce opportunities for unauthorized spending. The system's failure to prevent the N9.8 billion in questionable payments suggests either technical vulnerabilities or deliberate circumvention by authorized users. Parliamentary investigators will examine whether the payments resulted from system weaknesses, inadequate user training, or intentional fraud.
South Africa's SIU operates with broader investigative powers than many continental counterparts, including authority to refer cases directly to prosecutors and initiate civil recovery proceedings. The unit's success in securing arrests in the water tanker case may encourage similar proactive investigations into other irregular tenders. However, conviction rates in corruption cases remain relatively low, with many prosecutions stalling in overburdened courts.
The Nigerian parliamentary probe will likely extend beyond the immediate N9.8 billion payment investigation to examine broader GIFMIS governance, including user access controls, transaction approval hierarchies, and audit trail integrity. The four-year accounts production order suggests committee members anticipate discovering additional irregularities requiring detailed financial reconstruction. Outcomes from both investigations will test institutional capacity to enforce accountability and recover misappropriated public funds in Africa's most economically significant markets.