The National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO) has rejected reports of an Auditor-General’s query over N33.75 billion in 2023 cash transfers.
NCTO insisted that the payments were made to identified beneficiaries through established electronic systems.
The office said an audit query or observation did not, by itself, establish that public funds were stolen, diverted, misappropriated or lost.
The NCTO made the clarification while responding to findings contained in the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation’s (OAuGF) 2024 annual report on non-compliance and internal control weaknesses in federal ministries, departments and agencies.
The OAuGF had questioned the availability of sufficient evidence showing that N33.75 billion disbursed as cash transfers to 3.29 million vulnerable households actually reached genuine beneficiaries.
However, the NCTO said the transfers were processed through the programme’s established payment architecture and subjected to multiple layers of verification.
It said the payment system was governed by “stringent beneficiary identification, validation, authorization and payment controls”.
“Beneficiaries are not paid merely on the basis of names submitted for payment. The payment process operates against beneficiary records maintained within the programme’s beneficiary information systems and payment records and is subject to multiple levels of verification before payment processing,” the statement said.
The office also rejected any suggestion that the N33.751 billion was paid to unidentified or unverifiable persons.
“NCTO therefore strongly rejects any impression that the N33.751 billion represents payments made to unidentified or unverifiable persons,” it said.
According to the office, the beneficiary records were maintained electronically and could be reconciled with corresponding electronic payment records.
The NCTO said the scale of the programme made it impractical to print millions of beneficiary records and attach them physically to individual payment vouchers when the records and payment trails were available electronically.
“It would be neither practical nor necessary to print millions of beneficiary records and physically attach them to individual payment vouchers where the complete electronic beneficiary and payment audit trail is available for verification,” it said.
The cash transfer office also challenged the suggestion that beneficiary records required for the audit were withheld, saying it had documentary evidence showing that the records were transmitted to the auditors.
The NCTO said its records showed that the 2023 National Beneficiary Register was sent to the audit team by email on April 18, 2025, at 11:48 a.m.
It added that the 2024 and 2025 National Beneficiary Register records were also transmitted on April 21, 2026, at 6:25 p.m.
“The Office has retained email correspondence establishing that the 2023 National Beneficiary Register (NBR) beneficiary list was transmitted to the auditors on Friday, 18 April 2025 at 11:48 a.m,” the statement said.
“NCTO also has documentary email evidence showing that the 2024 and 2025 NBR records were transmitted to the audit team on Tuesday, 21 April 2026 at 6:25 p.m,” it added.
The office said it would provide copies of the email correspondence as evidence that the beneficiary records were transmitted to the audit team.
It described the records as “contemporaneous electronic records carrying identifiable dates and times of transmission” that could be independently verified.
“NCTO therefore respectfully but firmly disputes any suggestion that beneficiary records required to verify the identity of beneficiaries were deliberately withheld from the audit exercise,” it said.
The agency also disputed the Auditor-General’s claim that the relevant REMITA statement was not made available during the audit.
According to the NCTO, the project accountant retained email evidence showing that the relevant REMITA payment report had been shared with the audit team.
“The existence of contemporaneous email evidence showing transmission of the REMITA report provides an objective documentary basis for establishing whether the payment information was made available during the audit process,” the office said.
The NCTO argued that the absence of millions of printed beneficiary records attached to individual payment vouchers should not be interpreted as evidence that beneficiaries could not be identified or that payment records did not exist.
It maintained that the relevant information existed electronically and had been transmitted to the auditors.
“NCTO therefore strongly rejects any interpretation suggesting that N33.751 billion was paid to unidentified beneficiaries or that the Office deliberately concealed beneficiary and payment records from the auditors,” it said.
The office said the documentary evidence in its possession showed that “beneficiary records and REMITA payment information were transmitted to the audit team, and these records remain available for independent verification and reconciliation”.
