The embattled former management of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund says all training, contracts and rehabilitation it carried out received the approvals of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment and the National Assembly.
It was reported that, Ngige who accused the management of financial infractions and procurement breaches, had last week suspended the NSITF Managing Director, Adebayo Somefun and some members of his executive for allegedly lavishing “N3.4bn on non-existent staff training split into about 196 different consultancy contracts in order to evade the Ministerial Tenders Board and Federal Executive Council approvals.”
Responding to the allegations, the NSITF management, in a statement in Abuja on Sunday, insisted that the training referred to by the minister was budgeted for in 2017, 2018 and 2019 appropriations for over 5,000 staff nationwide.
It also explained that the Procurement Planning Committee meetings held for the procurement of goods, works and services to commence the procurement activities.
However, Ngige, in his response, directed the management team to tender their evidence before the Joint Board and Audit Investigative Panel set up to look into the financial and procurement breaches as well as gross misconduct in the NSITF for periods of 2016 to date.
The statement by the suspended NSITF management 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.
The ex-management members also faulted the allegations that they carried out the construction of 14 zonal offices running into billions of naira without board or ministerial approval.
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