The management of
the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) says Chris Ngige, minister of
labour and employment, approved the controversial N3.4 billion for the training
of staff.
Last week, Ngige
suspended the management over “misappropriation and other gross misconduct”.
The minister said while the sum of N2.3 billion was already paid for
“non-existent staff training”, N1.1 billion is being processed for the same
purpose.
The management
rejected the suspension by Ngige. TheCable reports that Adebayo Somefun, NSITF
managing director, was at work, on Friday.
In a statement on
Sunday, the management said the training referred to was in the budgets of the
agency for 2017, 2018 and 2019.
It said the minister
endorsed the funds for training of staff before the national assembly gave its
approval.
“There was no
contract splitting as claimed by the minister,” the statement read.
“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.
“We hereby seek that
due process be followed and the suspended staff should be allowed to return to
their offices to prepare their defence to all allegations against them.”
The management said
“some of the documents needed to defend the allegations are being carted away
from the office”.
It asked Ngige to
comply with a May circular issued by Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government
of the federation (SGF).
Mustapha had said
ministers do not have the power to remove or suspend heads of agencies.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com