Senate Probes NSITF over Alleged Mismanagement of N61.1bn

By Deji Elumoye

The Senate is set to probe the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) over an alleged diversion and financial mismanagement of N61.1 billion by its management.

The Senate Committee on Public Accounts (SPAC) has, therefore, invited the director general of the NSITF and other top officials of the agency to appear before it (today) Tuesday, June 15 to explain what they know about the alleged diversion of money.

The Chairman of the SPAC, Senator Mathew Urhoghide, said that the invitation was based on three queries issued in the 2018 Auditor General of the Federation’s Report, which is being considered by the upper legislative chamber.

According to auditor general’s query, the NSTIF was accused of diverting the sum of N5.5 billion from its account with the Zenith Bank while in another query, the agency allegedly paid N38.2 billion as personnel cost from 2012 till 2017, which was not approved by National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission. The query further alleged that N17.1 billion was transferred to some persons and companies from these account.

The query reads: “Audit observed that the fund had been implementing a salary structure that is not approved by the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission. As a result, irregular payment of N38,219,919,530.32 by way of personnel cost was made to the staff of the Fund from 2012 to 2017.

“Risk implementation of unapproved salary structure may result in wastage of public funds, as remuneration may be higher than the productivity level of staff. Recommendation: the managing director is required to provide the approval of the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission for the implementation of the fund’s salaries structure.”

Another query by the auditor-general reads: “Audit of the fund’s bank statements for the period under review revealed that contributions received from federal government in 2014, amounting to N5,500,000,000.00 were diverted to a Zenith Bank account number 1013938003, instead of the Skye Bank account number 1790122304 into which other contributions were paid, without providing any authority or any form of explanation for such diversion.

“Audit further observed the following: (A). The bank account was opened without the approval of the Accountant-General of the Federation, as no such approval was presented for audit.

“(B). The new account was opened specifically for this purpose as seen in the bank statements where a first tranche of N 2,750,000,000.00 was used in opening the account on August 29, 2014.

“Transfers were further made from the account to third parties, individuals and other NSITF accounts without payment vouchers and other supporting documents to authenticate such transfers.

“This puts doubt in the genuineness of all the transactions in the bank account. Consequently, audit cannot accept such transactions without necessary evidence as legitimate charges against public funds.”

The third query reads: “Audit observed from the fund’s Statements of Account No. 1750011691 with Skye Bank Plc, for the period January 1, 2013 to December 20, 2013, and Statements of Account No.2001754610 with First Bank Plc for the period January 7, 2013 to February 28, 2013, totaling N17,158,883,034.69 were transferred to some persons and companies from these accounts.

“However, payment vouchers relating to the transfers together with their supporting documents were not provided for audit. Consequently, the purpose(s) for the transfers could not be authenticated.”