Mindboggling mismanagement of funds at NSITF

 

IT has often been said that if Nigeria does not kill corruption, corruption will definitely kill Nigeria. Time and again the media regale us with stories of mindboggling malpractices and sharp practices among which is mismanagement of resources. The latest is that which took place at the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund where payment vouchers of over N17 billion have allegedly been destroyed by termites and rain. The revelation was made on Monday, August 15, 2022 during the probe being conducted by the Senate Public Accounts Committee headed by Senator Matthew Urhoghide (Edo-South).

The committee began its probe following a query by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation in its 2018 audit report. 50 different queries bordering on the alleged misappropriation of funds were reportedly raised against the agency. During his appearance before the Senate committee probing the agency, NSITF’s managing director, Michael Akabogu, was quoted as saying, “The container where the said documents were kept by past management has not only been beaten by rains over the years but even possibly been eaten up by termites,” he told the panel.

The office of the Auditor General said the N17.158 billion represented the total money the agency transferred from its Skye and First Bank accounts into various untraceable accounts belonging to individuals and companies between January and December 2013. “Management of NSITF, as shown in statements of account number 1750011691 with Skye Bank Plc, for the period January 1, 2013, to December 20 2013, and statements of account number 2001754610 with First Bank Plc for the period January 7, 2013, to February 28, 2013, transferred amounts totalling N17,158,883,034.69 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,” the query said.

However, the NSITF boss told the committee that he informed the agency’s past management officers to help answer the query with the necessary documents. The managing director of NSITF from 2010 to 2016, Umar Munir Abubakar, was reported to be aware of the query but gave no explanations since the audit exercise was not carried out during his tenure. His successor, Adebayo Somefun, from May 2017 to July 2020, allegedly insisted that those in the agency’s account section should be able to trace the documents. Both members of past and present management of the NSITF were asked to reappear before the panel with all necessary evidence concerning the transactions by September 22, 2022.

Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund has become a notorious cesspool of corruption. In October 2021, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission dragged a former chairperson of the board of the NSITF, Ngozi Olejeme, to court for alleged N1.4 billion fraud. EFCC’s spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, said in a statement that the defendant was arraigned on nine counts, which included abuse of office and using position to obtain over N1.4 billion and $48,485,127, before Maryam Aliyu of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Jabi, Abuja. The EFCC said her offences contravened the provisions of sections 8, 9 (1) (b) (1), punishable under the Corrupt Practice and Other Related Offence Act 2000 and sections 17, (1) (2), 39 of EFCC (Establishment) Act, 2004 and punishable under the same section.

According to The Guardian of October 21, 2021, Olejeme, along with former Managing Director of NSITF, Umar Abubakar, allegedly diverted over N69 billion belonging to the fund. The amount was reportedly found in accounts linked to them after the award of spurious contracts to proxy companies. Trouble was said to have started for Olojeme shortly after her sack by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), in 2015. The EFCC received a petition alleging that over N50 billion from the Employee Compensation Scheme, paid by Ministries Departments and Agencies as well as private companies, and another N18 billion being contributions of the Federal Government as take-off grants to the NSITF, were diverted into the personal accounts of the suspects.

These corruption scandals are quite unfortunate, considering the objective of setting up the agency. Information garnered from its website says it provides compensation to insured employees who suffer from occupational diseases, sustain injuries or disability from accidents at the workplace or in the course of employment, whether at their usual place of work or outside of it. Over the past fifty years, the NSITF has evolved from a Provident Fund Scheme to a Social Insurance Scheme and, currently the Employees’ Compensation Scheme. The fund prides itself on the following core values: Social Responsibility and Advocacy; Professional Management and Good Governance; Transparency and Accountability; Human Capital Development and Security of Investible Funds. All of these are observed in breach given the swirling controversies on the agency’s management of workers’ funds.

I posit that the Senate Public Accounts Committee should probe the agency without let or hindrance, fear or favour. All those who are found guilty of mismanaging workers’ funds should be recommended for prosecution by the anti-corruption agencies namely EFCC as well as the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission. There is also the need to tighten the nuts and bolts of the law setting up the agency, which made it easy for individuals to flagrantly breach public finance rules. For instance, does the agency not have an internal auditor? Why are the files of the agency not preserved in digital form? These days, technology has made it easy for vital documents to be stored electronically and even manually in fireproof and waterproof cabinets. Why did NSITF decide to expose payment vouchers to the elements thereby allowing rain and termites to feast on them? Could this be an act of omission or commission? I asked because, on several occasions, sensitive government documents are sometimes willfully destroyed in order to cover up fraudulent deals.

To my own mind, all the staff in the finance and admin department of the agency should be rounded up and interrogated to know their role in the purported mismanagement of the agency’s resources. Also, how much oversight is the Ministry of Labour and Employment providing over the agency that is under it? What about the National Assembly committees meant to oversight this agency? Did they perform their duty patriotically? Nigeria labour unions, particularly the Trade Union Congress and Nigeria Labour Congress and their affiliate unions, should take interest in what is going on at NSITF (that is if they are not complicit). The funds being mismanaged are workers’ resources. They should, therefore, demand a dispassionate probe of the mismanagement going on at NSITF. Meanwhile, kudos to the Office of Auditor General for exposing this fraud!