NSITF Management
The suspended management of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has come forward to say that all contracts, trainings and rehabilitations it executed were approved by the National Assembly and Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.
This statement is in response to the suspension of Adebayo Somefun, the Managing Director of the NSITF and other members of his team for squandering N3.4bn on non-existent staff training divided into 196 consultancy contracts in order to evade the Ministerial Tenders Board and Federal Executive Council approvals
The Labour and Employment minister, Ngige accused the NSITF management of financial and procurement violations with the training fund.
In response to this accusations , the NSITF management released a statement on Sunday July 5 insisting the training referred to was included in the nationwide staff budget in 2017,2018 and 2019.
They also explained that a procurement meeting had been held to obtain the services and good needed to resume procurement activities. The statement read,
“There was no contract splitting as claimed by the minister. The training referred to were budgeted for in the year 2017, 2018 and 2019 appropriations for over 5,000 staff nationwide, and Procurement Planning Committee Meetings were held for the procurement of goods, works and services to commence the procurement activities.
“All these details were included in the budget for these years, taken for budget defence in the supervising ministry, officially endorsed by the minister himself, approved and transmitted to the National Assembly for necessary approval during the budget defences for these years.”
The embattled management asked for due process to be applied in this case and suspended staff be allowed to resume duties and prepare for the allegations leveled against them.
They claimed that documents needed to defend themselves were being carried away and asked the Minister, Ngige to comply with the SGF Circular Ref No. SGF/OP/I.S.3/T/163 dated 19th May 2020.
In response, Ngige told the NSITF team to take their evidence before the Joint Board and Audit Investigative Panel that has been set uo to investigate inconsistencies and misconduct since 2016 and that if they were indeed innocent, the panel will exonerate them.
Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association(NECA) on the situation, said there was no record of the recommendations made by the NSITF to the Minister of Labour and Employment on the financial infractions leveled against them.
Dr Timothy Olawale, the Director- General of NECA on Sunday, told Dr Chris Ngige not to mislead the public, alluding that due process was not followed before the suspension of NSITF management although NECA was not against the investigation of the Fund.
Olawale added,
“The records are there for verification and members of the board including representatives of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Central Bank of Nigeria on the board are also alive to verify the truth.”