By Johnbosco Agbakwuru
Abuja—The Administrative Panel of Enquiry set up by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige to unravel the financial state of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF, and ancillary matters, has revealed that over N35 billion was spent by previous administration without documentary evidence.
The Ishaya Awotu-led panel of enquiry submitted its report to the Minister, yesterday, at the Ministry of Labour and Employment Conference hall, Abuja.
Meantime the Minister has described the document as a financial roadmap to a healthy NSITF and promised that an implementation committee would be swiftly set up to faithfully execute the recommendations.
The Panel, according to its report, alleged that payment vouchers in the sum of N27,056,598,053.92 were not presented to the Panel for audit examination and sighting.
It further alleged that payment vouchers in the sum of N8,376,083,789.72 were without adequate supporting documents. The report stated: “On 5th February 2017, the Minister of Labour and Employment constituted an Administrative Panel of Enquiry to look into the Financial State of Affairs of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) and Matters Ancillary thereto.
The terms of reference given to the panel include, among others, “to investigate and render a report on the accounting procedures of NSITF in order to ensure proper accounting and management of funds, especially on how the internal Audit mechanism of the establishment broke down, allowing for such colossal loss of funds from the organization.
The Panel recommended that the management of the Fund should, without further delay, conclude the External Auditors’ Reports for the period 2011 to 2015.
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