The Nation Newspaper

Tag: NSITF

  • Ngige explains delay of NSITF board inauguration

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige has said that neither the ministers nor the board have the authority to award contracts in the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) or any other federal board.

    Ngige said this in a statement signed by Mr Samuel Olowookere, the Director Press in the ministry on Wednesday in Abuja.

    He said his attention had been drawn to media reports indicating that his office appropriated the powers of the board of NSITF in the award of contracts, hence the delay in inaugurating the board.

    Read Also:Ngige to Oshiomhole: be guided in your utterances

    “Such a blatant falsehood is either on account of fertile ignorance or outright mischief or both by the originator as well as the peddlers.

    “ It is, therefore, imperative that the provisions of the procurement Act 2010 which is clear and unambiguous on the process for the award of contracts be re-emphasised.

    “For purpose of clarity, the Ministerial Tenders Board (MTB) for the award of contracts in any ministry is made up of the Permanent Secretaries as Chairman and his directors.

    “In the parastatals, the Parastatals Tenders Board consists of Chief Executive Officer (Director-General or Managing Director) and his directors.

    “It was, therefore, a ‘stunningly crass ignorance’ for anyone to think that part of the reasons for delaying the NSITF board inauguration was to enable the minister usurp the role of boards as regard award of contracts,’’.

    Ngige advised those in authority to be versed in the basic issues that guide public governance and also be properly guided in their utterance, to avoid character assassination and misinformation of the public.

    He said that the reason for the delay of the NSITF board inauguration was to enable the Administrative Panel of Inquiry probe the misappropriation of N48 billion out of which five billion naira disappeared in a day without vouchers.

    The minister added that the panel had submitted its report while the committee implementing the report had begun work and would finish soon, paving way for the inauguration of the board.

     

     

     

     

  • Ngige: APC won’t hesitate to expel erring ministers – Oshiomhole

    The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, on Monday warned that the party would not hesitate to suspend or expel any minister who disobeyed President Muhammadu Buhari’s directives.

    He was reacting to the delay by the Minister of Labour, Senator Chris Ngige, to inaugurate the board of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Funds (NSITF)

    Ngige was said to have refused to inaugurate the board due to alleged fraud of over N40 billion by previous board.

    But speaking with State House correspondents after meeting with President Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Oshiomhole said: “If the minister refuse we will suspend him from the party. You know we must return to internal discipline. For me it is the height of mischief for any minister. You cannot purport to be honourable minister and you act dishonourably and nobody is greater than the party.

    “And if the President condones disrespect for his office, I will not condone disrespect for the party. And when we expel the minister we will prevail on the President that he can’t keep in his cabinet people who have neither respect for his own decisions nor have respect for the party without which they would not have been ministers.

    “There are no independent candidate in our system, nobody. I emphasis no minister is above the party and they have taken undue advantage of the President’s fatherly disposition.

    “Now, it is the same green pen that made them minister that appointed these boards that they are refusing to swear in. And it is absolutely illegal for a minister in a democracy to prey the powers of the board because the laws establishing those institutions are clear, that the boards have procedures to follow.

    “So, when a minister sits in his office to appropriate the powers of the board in a democracy, not in a dictatorship, award contract that didn’t go through boards, those are clearing abuse of office for which they are liable.

    “I am convinced that what they are doing is not with the endorsement of Mr. President. Over the period they have tried to drop the President’s name but I tell them it is the same authority that appointed these people.

    “So, we are informing them that it is either they comply with the President’s instructions or they comply with the party’s position or they go and administer outside the government.”

     

     

  • Heads to roll as Fed Govt uncovers N62.555b fraud in NSITF

    The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) is a cesspool of fraud and lawlessness, a report has said

    A Federal Government panel has uncovered about N62.555 billion fraud in the agency.

    The money was spent without proper accounting procedures being followed, according to the panel, which submitted its report to the government yesterday.

    Minister of Labour and Employment Chris Ngige said any member of the staff indicted by the report will face the law.

    The chairman of the Administrative Panel, Ishaya Awotu, said while presenting its final report to the minister that the Fund’s books have not been fully audited since 2011.

    The panel discovered that several unauthorised allowances were paid to the staff and the management. Overseas trips and training were carried out without approval from the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation as required by civil service rules.

    The minister had in February 2018 inaugurated the panel to investigate the finances of the Fund, following a damning report from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) indicting former Board members.

    Some senior management staff were sent on compulsory leave to allow the panel carry out its assignment without any interference.

    Awotu said that the panel noticed weaknesses in the operation of the Fund, adding that even though it had External Auditors from  2011 to 2015, the audited financial statements and the management letters for year 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 were submitted to the management, but were incomplete.

    He said: “As at the time of forwarding this report, none of the years audited  accounts has been concluded while the audit reports remained unsigned. The basis for management’s re-appointment of the external auditors for the auditing of 2015 accounts could not be ascertained;

    “The Fund does not have Financial Operational Manual to guide in its financial activities while compliance with the provisions of the Financial Regulations in carrying out their financial transactions was very weak;

    “Bank reconciliation of most of the bank accounts of the Fund was not carried out. Without the reconciliation of the bank statements, irregular payments and fraud committed on the accounts cannot be detected. Furthermore, financial statements prepared from unreconciled accounts cannot be reliable. Non-reconciliation of bank accounts violates Section 716 of the Financial Regulations;

    “The internal Audit function of the Fund was ineffective. The Panel observed that for the period 2013 to 2017, the internal Audit Department did not audit the cashbooks of the various bank accounts at the headquarters of the Fund; books and records of Investments and Treasury Department, Procurement Processes, Registration of Employers and payment of contributions by the Employers, Enforcement and Inspection activities, Fixed Assets etc. The lack of effective auditing of the Fund’s accounts and records violates section 1701 of the Financial Regulations;

    “It was observed that the Fund was operating with incomplete books of accounts. Several bank statements of the various bank accounts, cashbooks, etc. were not submitted for audit examination and sighting. Financial statements (accounts) produced from such accounting system cannot be reliable.”

    According to the report, “there were several transfers of funds in between bank accounts without authorization and approvals”. “The sum of N15,737,757,697.91  was transferred from one account to another. Evidence of the approvals and payment vouchers authorising the transfers were not presented to the Panel, it said.

    Observations are that:

    • N2,990,184,262.77 was expended on computerisation and other related lCT equipment without tangible result;
    • Overseas tours and trainings were undertaken without the approval of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation;
    • the Fund does not maintain Expenditure Vote Control Books required for the monitoring and control of the various sub-heads. None maintenance of the vote-books made it impossible for the Fund to control extra budgetary spending;
    • N2,650,731,225.93 deducted from various payments in respect of Withholding Tax (VAT), Pay-As-You-Earn (PAVE), Value Added Tax, Pension and National Housing Fund were not remitted to the relevant authorities;
    • N5, 744,968,834.13 “irregular allowances” were paid to staff and management.

    “Some of the allowances such as Management Staff Allowance, Staff Education Allowance. DSTV Subscription Allowance, Dressing Allowance,  Generator and Motor Vehicle Fueling Allowance paid to staff and  management were not provided for in the Condition of Service of the Fund.

    • Payment vouchers in the sum of N27,056,598,053.92 were not presented to the Panel for audit examination and sighting; and
    • Payment vouchers in the sum of N8,376,083,789.72 were without adequate supporting documents

    The panel recommend that the management should conclude the External Auditors’ Reports for 2011 to 2015. New external auditors should be appointed immediately to audit the accounts of 2016 and 2017 financial years.

    The panel also said that NSITF should carry out full reconciliation of assets acquired and recorded in the cashbooks against the Fixed Assets Register.

    “The Staff Condition of Service should be reviewed, with immediate effect, to correct lapses contained therein. There is also the need to review the investment Policy Document of the Fund,” the report said, adding:

    “A professional firm of accountants should be engaged to carry out in-depth examination of transfers in-between the accounts to ensure that the transfers of N15, 37,757,697.91  were properly accounted for.

    “The Firm should also carry out the bank reconciliation of the accounts of the Fund from its inception to date to assure that there are no financial losses resulting from the non-reconciliation of the accounts.”

    The panel demanded to see the payment vouchers N27,056,598,053.92 that were not presented to it for audit examination and sighting;

    The Fund should also produce the relevant supporting documents . for the various payment vouchers with total monetary value of N8,376,083,789.72 to substantiate the payments, the report said.

    It also recommended that a financial plan on the remittance of the N2,650,731,225.93 deducted from staff salaries to various authorities should be made.

    Receiving the report, Ngige promised that it would be implemented fully and the lapses identified corrected.

    He said “Those findings especially about overseas trips which are unauthorised will be dealt with because they are actions that breached public service rules. It is not true that parastatals are exempted from public service rules. This report will be fully implemented and areas of lapses corrected. So many government organisations have gone under because of situations like this.”

    He went on: “Following the whistle blowing policy of this administration, the EFCC moved into the place and did some forensic auditing of the accounts of the agency.

    “After reading the EFCC report, we felt it was necessary to set up this administrative panel to find out why the internal audit mechanism broke down in such a way that the N62 billion contributed cannot be seen.

    “Those indicted included those nominated by the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association. So, we were not in a hurry because we needed to give the new board a new lease of life because you don’t put new wine in old wine skin.”

  • NSITF creates special fund for compensation

    The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has created a special fund to ensure prompt settlement of claims and compensation of injured workers.

    Its Executive Director, Operations, Mrs Kemi Nelson, said the decision was informed by the need to meet the 14 days payment timeline set by the management of NSITF.

    She said: “The management thinks that it is injurious and criminal to delay the payment of compensation of victims. That is why we have dedicated a certain percentage of money that comes into the Fund to claim and compensation payment. This has ensure that time would even come when claims and compensation would be in dire need of funding.”

    She said reducing accidents in the workplace and rehabilitating workers that sustain various degrees of injuries have impacted positively on the stability of families and give hope to women that lost their breadwinners to work.

    “The NSITF should not be within the context of preventing injuries in the workplace and rehabilitating workers that sustain injuries in the course of work, but within the larger context of ensuring that the family does not suffer as a result of bread winners inability to work or die in the course of work.

    “We have women who lose their husbands to workplace accident that are getting a sort of lifeline from the NSITF. Such women and their children do not need to rely on the goodwill of the family for survival. So, for us at the NSITF, seeing that women are no longer stranded after the demise of their husbands is so important to us and that is why we are striving to reduce payment of compensation to only 14 working days after the necessary papers have been filed in our offices,” she said.

    Nelson said the management of the NSITF places top priority on creating and maintaining a stable and friendly environment at work, saying: “Since we came on board, we have tried to create an environment where friends interact to deliver credible service to the people. We have not had any labour issue since we came on board because we have made workers welfare the cornerstone of all we have been doing.”

  • FG stops NSITF board inauguration over ‘mindless looting’

    FG stops NSITF board inauguration over ‘mindless looting’

    President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday stayed action on the inauguration  of the board of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) pending the outcome of an administrative enquiry into alleged  mindless looting of the agency.

    About N5billion is alleged to have been looted under the last dispensation in NSITF.

    The new board headed by renowned activist, Chief Frank Kokori , was scheduled for inauguration yesterday by Labour and Employment Minister Chris Ngige.

    Ngige however proceeded with the inauguration of the boards of  the National Productivity Centre(NPC), National Directorate of Employment(NDE)  and Micheal Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies(MINILS).

    The minister said on the occasion that  government had found that N5billion was misappropriated under the nose of the last board.

    He said: “NSITF is one of the causalities of such misappropriation which is why their board is not being inaugurated today (yesterday).

    “They are in arrears of about four to five years and between this four to five years there has been massive looting that took place in that organisation.

    “Reports from the audit balance have  revealed that a whooping sum of about five billion was removed in one day in a single voucher.

    “Therefore, government has decided that we must know how this financial hemorrhage occurred in this organisation and also several sums that are  not being accounted for and running into billions.

    “So today as we speak, workers in that organisation cannot even get tax clearance certificates as their payee tax deductions, housing allowance deductions and their pension deductions are all taken away, stolen.

    “Therefore, you can now see why we want you to be guided by the financial rules and regulations and to ensure that you implement it to the latter”.

    While warning against a repeat of such mindless looting, Ngige said “the operations of the various parastatals must strictly conform to  Financial Regulations especially Section 32 and the provisions of the Procurement Act. The audited accounts of the Parastatals must always be prepared and submitted to the relevant authorities as and when due.

    “Some of them, from the management and from the last board, including their chairman have been charged to court by the EFCC. So, we don’t want the new board to go into stench; putting a new wine in an old wine skin. It will be polluted.”

    ”That’s why the President agreed for us to do an Administrative Enquiry there to explain the total failure of the internal audit mechanism for checking that no money leaves the establishment without voucher and in this instance, over N30 billion missing and N5 billion of it without any voucher, no trace. It is unacceptable.”

    The Minister therefore said that once the Panel of Enquiry concluded its findings and government issued a gazette on its conclusions, a new board would be inaugurated

    “We will make sure that people who are going there will be people of character and quality so that such a thing will never happen again because the NSITF is the flagship board of this ministry and for the constituent tripartite organizations, he concluded.”

  • Reps allege recruitment racketeering at NSITF

    Reps allege recruitment racketeering at NSITF

    The House of Representatives has expressed concern over what it described as recruitment racketeering at the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF).  It ordered the Committee on Labour, Employment and Productivity to investigate why the NSITF board  has not been inaugurated five months after its composition.

    The fund’s management, the House said, is being inundated by requests for employment of senior managers by top officials of the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

    The lawmakers also argued that the non-inauguration of the Board, which has former National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG) General Secretary Frank Kokori as its chairman, has thrown the Fund into confusion, which is threatening the delivery of its mandate.

    According to the law establishing the fund, NSITF Board members are drawn from Labour, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, who represents the ministry; the three executive directors of the Fund and its managing director/Chief Executive  Officer.

    However, The Nation gathered that the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) had written to the Minister of Labour and Employment to inaugurate NSITF board without further delay.

    Its National President, Oyinkansola Olasanoye, said the Board’s inauguration  would enable the Fund deliver on its mandate. She  expressed the union’s readiness  to work with relevant stakeholders and high government officials to appeal to the Minister to inaugurate the board.

    According to her, the union had sent a letter to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha, on the need to halt the recruitment of additional 350 senior managers into the Fund by the Minister at a time the Fund is facing financial difficulty and in no urgent need for fresh staffers.

    Asking the Federal Government to expand the Fund’s mandate  to include payment of compensation to unemployed persons, Olasanoye said the implementation of the N5,000 social benefit promised by the All Progressives Congress (APC) ought to have been implemented by the NSITF, which has the manpower and structures to implement such mandate.

    She said: “We thought that the APC government would have allowed the NSITF to implement the N5, 000 social benefit to unemployed persons because the Fund already has the staffers that are trained in the implementation of social security in advanced countries that have been implementing it for decades.

    “In addition to this, they also have the structure in all the 36 states of the federation. Again, the Federal Government would not have to spend money to recruit fresh staff to administer the benefit. The reason the programme has not achieved the desired result is that the most appropriate body was not allowed to implement it.”

  • Our Girls; NSITF, ‘Swallow’ Snakes

    Our Girls; NSITF, ‘Swallow’ Snakes

    Our Girls are still missing since April 15, 2014. Pray for their return.

    Is Nigeria cursed or a wonderful country with some evil citizens, forcing us to ‘Manage’ i,e. ‘endure and struggle to compensate for’  culpable incompetence in Nigeria’s darkness of 5000mw due to the devil even as we get another loan -$459m for grid expansion while Ghana has a KarPowership in Takoradi Port providing 270 of 470Mw?

    Remember a ‘federal’ Obasanjo stopping a ‘state’ Tinubu doing the same in 1999? Ghana 10 : Nigeria Nil!! Again!!!

    Travel is death. Misau town, Bauchi lost 24 young children, teachers and driver, a ‘bad road’ national tragedy. Did the Ministry of Works signboard draw attention to danger spots and does FRSC put signs on danger potholed spots? Perhaps not for ‘for fear of offending the Ministry of Works’. Where is the last road maintenance supervisor’s due diligence report? We had to turn back to Ibadan last Saturday at 8am because of ‘good road’ expressway gridlock crash traffic. More needless death!

    Be aware that a trailer/car crash may occur at Bode, Ibadan due to a water-mains leak destroying the asphalt and potholing the Bode Bridge, Ibadan creating the real danger of a tanker plunging into the market or the World Bank Drainage Channel. Please fix the leaking bridge now during the commendable Oyo State Anti-Pothole war!

    Is Nigeria cursed – a country curse or a citizen curse? Is it not a curse when after all the corruption, yet another major government agency, Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF)’s staff, with the arrogance to prosecute businesses for compulsory deductions are now accused in the theft/misappropriation of N62,000,000,000 or N62b nearly N1000/ adult Nigerian. Our NSITF deductions should be returned to us for 2015-2017 as punishment and National Assembly (NASS) should demand a reduction in the obviously too high percentage deduction and push for NSITF to be scrapped as yet another consumptive government contraption created specifically to steal from the citizenry!

    Look at the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) N1b+ scam. There must be some massive fraud there, no matter who is right, one must be wrong, between the Minister of Health and the CEO mysteriously cleared by Buhari. Remember the recurrent pension frauds N26-32,000,000,000? Are these places all run by mad people?

    Is Nigeria cursed by a financial crimes system’s mental and material inability to pre-emptively instill honest mechanisms or at least catch thieves after ‘just’ N1m, 19m, 40m, 500, 1b theft, well before the Gold Standard of theft in Nigeria of the N20+billion mark? Everyone knows that all fraud starts with ‘the first N1’ and the human ‘swallow snake’ in the office. We are cursed because such fraud must happen in such agencies as a ‘sine qua non’ definition of MDA and big government. Government Agency = Fraud. Period! They deserve a sign ‘Come and swallow N20+billion or else!’ Corruption is curse, a huge cross-party huge iceberg. Can we not prevent the inevitable tip we see? Why must Nigeria wait till N62.3b is ‘swallowed‘ by the ‘snakes’ before discovery? Where are the daily auditors?

    Is Nigeria cursed or blessed by the longevity, advice and cost of its past leaders? Is Nigeria cursed by a political leadership too greedy to fulfill the rights of the citizen to adequate modern 21st century infrastructure to allow the citizens to ‘do their own economic and social thing’? Is Nigeria cursed by a citizenship which expects nothing except a tiny handout of stomach infrastructure as price for selling one’s vote at an election of questionable moral standard? How could the boastful elephant, ‘largest economy in Africa,’ be so mismanaged as to be ‘economically thirsty for fuel’, fuelless now for three complete months – December to February, and counting? Yet there is no punishment for the loss of queueing time wasted in trillions of hours [if 10m drivers have queued for 100 hours in three months =1,000,000,000= 1trillion hours lost], naira in high billons and, business losing, image destroying, internationally disgraceful misery visited upon Nigeria’s population.

    Is Nigeria cursed by a new breed of snake or an old breed newly discovered? Nigerian snakes are well known for causing power cuts by taking residence in transformers. The creation of a ‘New Improved Modern Swallow Meal of Money’ instead of the ‘Traditional Swallow Meals ingeniously defined as ‘Meals Swallowed Without Chewing’ like amala, eba, fufu, pounded yam, is a first. Today we have another first, a ‘circus quality’ mythical ‘Amazing Money-Swallowing JAMB Snake’ which out-swallows everyone by swallowing N36,000,000 or 360 packets of N100,000 x N1000 notes or 720 pkts of N50,000 x N500, perhaps soaked in gari for easy ‘swallow’?

    Perhaps those who corruptly stole our billions actually were also a new species of ‘Swallow’ snake, abi we just de ‘Swallow Money’????  Thank goodness we did not agree to introduce Sanusi’s N5000 notes – just 72 packets of 500,000/packet x N5,000, obviously quite feasible and definitely whetting its appetite and leaving the ‘Swallow‘ Snake hungry for more. Will our ‘Naija JAMB  Swallow Snake’ enter the Guinness Book of Records 2018? And now a car with scratch cards worth N23m JAMB has caught fire. Expensive smoke OO! JAMB is dangerous place. Snake and Fire!

    Are we cursed? We are plagued by needless wars visiting death, destruction, despair and devilry on the citizenry already struggling in a war waged by politicians on the citizens’ budgets and the Election War.

    Nigeria required a restructuring founded on ‘True Unity’ with Justice as the key word.

     

    NB: Uncover ‘I LOVE NIGERIA’ KNOWLEDGEABLE CANDIDATES for 2019 -SDG 16.

     

     

     

  • Panel to probe alleged diversion of N62.3b at NSITF

    Panel to probe alleged diversion of N62.3b at NSITF

    The Federal Government has constituted an administrative panel of enquiry to investigate how over N62.3 billion was allegedly mismanaged by the former management and board of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF).

    Minister of Labour and Employment Chris Ngige, who inaugurated the panel yesterday, sent  six officers of the fund on 30 days leave in the first instance to enable the panel discharge its assignment unhindered.

    Sent on compulsory leave are: General Manager, Legal Adebayo A. Aderibigbe; Deputy General Manager, Finance Henry Ekhasomi; General Manager, Social Security Ishmael Agaka; Deputy General Manager, Internal Audit Zwalda Ponkap; General Manager, Information, Catherine Ugbe; and General Manager, Compensation Dr. Kelly Nwagha.

    The minister said the nine-member panel headed by Director of Finance and Accounts of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment Ishaya A. Awotu would look into the financial state of the NSITF with a view to purging it of “negative trails inflicted on it by its last board and management”.

    In a statement, the ministry’s Director (Press), Olowookere Samuel, quoted Ngige as saying: “As you may be aware, the last board and administration of the NSITF left negative trails inimical to any advancement and progress for both the human and infrastructural components of the NSITF.

    “The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) had discovered various acts of fraudulent diversions from the Federal Government and Private Sector Contributions amounting to N62.3 billion as at 2015, allegedly perpetrated by the past board and management staff of the NSITF.”

    In instituting the public inquiry, the minister said though the EFCC was already handling the criminal investigations leading to the prosecution of the former managing director, general manager (Legal) and the deputy general manager (Finance and Accounts), it was crucial to further unearth the administrative machinery that made the looting of such a colossal sum of public fund possible and forestall its reoccurrence.

    He lamented that contrary to the Act establishing the NSITF, no Accounting Audit Report and Returns had been done in the organisation since 2013.

    “On assumption of duty in November 2015, I requested for the Audit Report to enable my office render same in my Annual Report to the President as required by Sec. 30 of the NSITF Act, CAP. N88, Laws of the Federation, 2004 but no feedback was given on the matter in 2015, 2016, and even 2017. All efforts made in this direction were frustrated.

    “In 2017, I specifically requested the Auditor General of the Federation to conclude periodic audit check as required by Section 85(4) of the Constitution. This yielded no result as the officials of the NSITF gave no cooperation to the Federal Government’s auditors,” Ngige said.

    The panel, whose membership cuts across relevant ministries, departments and agencies will be chaired by Ishaya A. Awotu, who is the director of Finance and Accounts in the Federal Ministry of labour and Employment.

    Dr. Ifeoma Anyanwutaku, director of Occupational Safety and Health in the Ministry, will serve as secretary.

    Other members include: Mrs. P.O Odusanya from the office of the Auditor General of the Federation, Mr. S.U. Ukut from the National Salary Income and Wages Commission, Millicent Ikeotuonye from the Budget Office of the Federation and Eze Osuagwu, representing the Organised Private Sector.

    Also included are: representative of the office of the Attorney General of the Federation, Ibrahim Jilbia, who is director of Skills Acquisition and Certification as well as Mrs. D.E  Ajiboye, director, Social Security and Cooperative Development – both from the Ministry of labour and Employment.

  • FG to probe mismanagement of N62.3bn in NSITF

    FG to probe mismanagement of N62.3bn in NSITF

    The Federal Government has constituted an administrative panel of inquiry to investigate how N62.3 billion was mismanaged by the former Management and Board of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF).

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, who inaugurated the panel on Thursday announced a compulsory 30 days leave in the first instance for officers of the Fund to enable the panel carry out its assignment without hindrance.

    Those to proceed on compulsory leave are the General Manager, Legal, Adebayo A. Aderibigbe; Deputy General Manager, Finance, Henry Ekhasomi; General Manager, Social Security, Ishmael Agaka; Deputy General Manager, Internal Audit, Zwalda Ponkap; General Manager, Information, Catherine Ugbe and General Manager, Compensation, Dr. Kelly Nwagha.

    The minister said the nine -member panel headed by the Director of Finance and Accounts of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Ishaya A. Awotu, would look into the financial state of the NSITF with a view to purging it of all negative trails inflicted on it by the last board and management.

    Ngige said: “As you may be aware, the last Board and Administration of the NSITF left negative trails inimical to any advancement and progress for both the human and infrastructural components of the NSITF.

    “The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had discovered various acts of fraudulent diversions from the Federal Government and Private Sector Contributions amounting to N62.3 billion as at 2015, allegedly perpetrated by the past board and management staff of the NSITF.”

    He said though the EFCC is already handling the criminal investigations leading to the prosecution of the former Managing Director, General Manager, Legal and the Deputy General Manager, Finance and Accounts, it was important to further unearth the administrative machinery that made the looting of such a colossal sum of public fund possible and forestall its reoccurrence.

     

  • NSITF transfers N37.6m to 788 beneficiaries

    About N37.69 million pension contributions, belonging to 788 beneficiaries’ Retirement Savings Account (RSAs) holders as at quarter 3, 2016, has been transferred to the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF).

    What this means is that RSA holders can now have their pension fund, previously managed by the NSITF,  managed by their Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

    The transfered fund was revealed in a report released by the National Pension Commission (PenCom) to newsmen in Lagos.

    The report read: “The Commission continued the supervision of the transfer of NSITF contributions into beneficiaries’ RSAs during the quarter under review. In this regard, Eight hundred and nine (809) applications were received for the transfer of the total sum of N39.18 million into RSAs of NSITF beneficiaries.

    “The Commission processed 788 applications worth about N37.69 million. Thirty seven (37) applications for the transfer of N921.06 thousand were rejected due to incomplete documentations.”

    Concerning the update on issuance of Compliance Certificates by the private sector, the report said the Commission issued 3,3374 certificates to various organisations.

    “During the quarter under review, the Commission received a total of 3,475 applications for issuance of Compliance Certificates.

    “Out of this figure, compliance certificates were issued to 3,374 organisations while applications from 101 were turned down due to incomplete documentations. The sum of N12.19 billion was remitted by the 3,374 organisations that were issued certificates,”it added.