Ex-NSITF leaders are being summoned by the Senate for suspected N84 billion theft.
Written by admin on July 5, 2021
Former managing directors of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund have been called by the Senate for suspected missing financial papers at the agency.
On Tuesday, the former NSITF executives are scheduled to testify before the Senate Public Accounts Committee.
Senator Matthew Urhoghide, the Chairman of SPAC, revealed at the latest meeting of his panel on Thursday that the office of the Auditor-General for the Federation has issued 50 questions against NSITF personnel.
The ex-NSITF leaders were invited, according to Urhoghide, after the agency’s officials failed to reply to the AuGF’s questions about suspected financial misdeeds.
The committee determined that the agency was unable to produce any financial documentation related to the matter presented by the committee, according to the senator.
The panel’s hearings were seen by our correspondent, who noticed that officials from the agency were unable to present papers related to the financial transactions at issue.
They also informed the senators that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was already pursuing several of the NSITF’s former managing directors who were allegedly implicated in the financial misdeeds.
The panel chairman, on the other hand, instructed agency staff to distinguish between matters for which they could produce records and those for which the anti-graft agency was now responsible.
He stated that the previous managing directors must appear before his panel to explain what happened during their tenures.
“We can no longer make excuses that there is no record for the specified financial transactions,” Urhoghide added.
“Go back to your office and search for them, and we’ll also be inviting the NSITF’s previous managing director. They are scheduled to appear in front of us on Tuesday.”
At the end of the first day of investigation hearings, the chairman claimed that 12 of the 50 questions the committee has looked into so far showed that over N84 billion might have been stolen in four years.
He went on to say that documents from the AuGF showed that the NSITF’s administration and board allegedly conspired to commit the alleged violations between 2012 and 2017.
The audit found that the Fund was using a compensation structure that was not permitted by the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission, according to one of the questions.
As a result, from 2012 to 2017, the Fund’s workers received irregular payments totaling N 38.22 billion in personnel costs.
