Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports
The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has stated that the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation’s 2018 audit report, which raised 50 questions about the misappropriation of N17.158 billion, had nothing to do with the current management, which took office on June 1, 2021.
The fund stated in a statement issued yesterday in Abuja by the General Manager, Corporate Affairs, NSITF, Ijeoma Okoronkwo, that the financial violations occurred between 2012 and 2017.
It stated that the Senate Committee on Public Accounts was conducting the investigation as part of its statutory oversight functions, and that “it is critical to inform the general public that what is under investigation are not new infractions, but cumulative financial violations under the management that ran the agency between 2012 and 2017.”
“These offenses are not new. They have been under investigation since the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation raised the red flag in 2015. We make it clear that the negative consequences of these breaches have nothing to do with the current administration other than assisting the Senate Committee in carrying out its oversight functions, knowing full well that government is a continuum.
“The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has investigated and prosecuted the former Chairman of the Board and five other senior officials, including the Managing Director and three Directors, over some of the issues.”
“Huge sums of money and property were also recovered, and some of the indicted employees were also removed from their positions.”
“In fact, when the Senate Committee launched this current investigation, the Managing Director, Dr. Michael Akabogu, formed an internal committee to obtain detailed transactions involving the fund during the period under investigation from First Bank and Skye Bank, respectively.” The documents were then delivered to the Senate Committee.”
In light of reports that termites were eating up the documents used in the transactions under investigation, the NSITF explained that the contents of the container where they were kept on the fund’s premises had succumbed to elements.
“However, when the Senate Committee requested the vouchers supporting the transactions, Dr. Akabogu requested that the former Managing Directors whose tenures the transactions were made be invited to provide additional answers, particularly regarding the vouchers.”
“Because the current management is not in possession of the vouchers, the Senate Committee was informed that the contents of the container in the fund’s premises, where the former Managing Directors allegedly left the vouchers, have succumbed to the elements.”
‘And that this can be supported by memos previously written by the fund’s General Services Department on the state of the facility in question,” it stated.
Okoronkwo stated that the statement was necessary to prevent further incorrect finger-pointing and mischief in the media directed at the current management of the NSITF.
According to her, the NSITF has charted a new course with strategic reforms that are strongly anchored in transparency and are already yielding positive results since the current management team took over.
