Cash Transfer Office Dismisses Auditor-General’s Alleged N33.75bn Fraud Report

The National Cash Transfer Office has rejected allegations arising from a report by the Auditor-General for the Federation that the Federal Government could not provide sufficient evidence that N33.75bn in electronic cash transfers reached genuine beneficiaries.

The NCTO management, in a statement made available to our correspondent on Wednesday, described the interpretation of the audit observations as materially incomplete, insisting that the questioned funds were transferred through the established payment architecture to beneficiaries captured in the National Beneficiary Register.

The NCTO also disputed the allegation that its officials obstructed auditors from accessing the REMITA payment records, saying documentary evidence, including emails showing the transmission of beneficiary data and payment information, was available for independent verification.

The Auditor-General’s findings were earlier reported by PUNCH on September 5, 2026, following the publication of the 2024 Annual Report on Non-Compliance/Internal Control Weaknesses in Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

According to the report, the audit reviewed transactions of the National Cash Transfer Office for the 2023 financial year and identified eight audit queries involving billions of naira.

The auditors noted that N33.751bn was said to have been electronically transferred to 3,295,207 households and beneficiaries across 35 states. They, however, said the payment vouchers did not contain full beneficiary details and that the REMITA statement required to reconcile those who received the funds with names on the National Social Register and National Beneficiary Register was not presented.

But the NCTO, in its detailed response, said the audit observation should not be interpreted as a finding that N33.75bn was stolen, diverted or lost. The Office stressed that an audit observation requiring clarification or supporting documents is different from a final determination of fraud or financial loss.

“An audit query or observation is not, by itself, a final determination that public funds were stolen, diverted, misappropriated or lost,” NCTO responded, adding that audit observations ordinarily require management responses, examination of supporting records and reconciliation before definitive conclusions can be reached.

Addressing the central allegation, the NCTO said the transfers were made electronically to identified beneficiaries under the programme’s established payment architecture.

It explained that beneficiaries were not paid simply on the basis of names submitted for payment but through beneficiary records maintained in the programme’s information systems and subjected to identification, validation and authorisation controls.

The NCTO maintained that the electronic nature of the programme meant that millions of beneficiaries’ records were maintained digitally and did not have to be physically printed and attached to individual payment vouchers where the underlying electronic audit trail was available.

“Beneficiary records underlying the transfers are maintained electronically and can be subjected to data-level reconciliation against the corresponding electronic payment records,” the office said.

More significantly, the NCTO said it had documentary evidence showing that the National Beneficiary Register was transmitted to the audit team.

According to the NCTO management, the 2023 NBR beneficiary list was sent to the auditors by email on April 18, 2025, at 11:48 am, while the 2024 and 2025 NBR records were transmitted on April 21, 2026, at 6:25 pm.

It said the emails contained identifiable dates and times and could be independently verified. It, therefore, rejected any suggestion that it deliberately withheld beneficiary records from the auditors.

The NCTO also specifically challenged the allegation that its accounts officials obstructed access to the REMITA statement, saying that the project accountant has retained email correspondence demonstrating that the relevant REMITA payment report was shared with the audit team.

It said the correspondence would be made available alongside the clarification to enable independent verification. “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,” NCTO added.

The cash transfer office consequently argued that the allegation of deliberate obstruction was inconsistent with the documentary correspondence in its possession.

It maintained that the fact that millions of beneficiary records were not physically printed and attached to individual vouchers could not reasonably be interpreted as evidence that the records did not exist.

The office also responded to the Auditor-General’s query concerning 101 payments totalling N4.62bn from the S&S/IDA Cash Book. The audit had said the corresponding paid vouchers were not presented for examination and recommended that the money be accounted for or recovered and remitted to the Treasury.