N17bn Probe: Termites Ate Payment Vouchers, NSITF Tells Senate

The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has told the Senate Committee on Public Accounts that termites ate payment vouchers for the spending of N17.16 billion in 2013.

Naija News reports that the agency’s management stated this last Friday while appearing before the Senate Committee inside the National Assembly conference hall.

The office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, in its 2018 audit report, said the N17.158 billion was the total amount transferred by NSITF from its Skye (now Polaris Bank) and First Bank accounts into various untraceable accounts belonging to individuals and companies from January to December 2013.

Speaking on the matter, the Managing Director of NSITF, Michael Akabogu, failed to justify the spending of the funds spent in 2013 with the required documents.

Akabogu disclosed that no documents of such were in their kitty, adding that he was told by past management that the vouchers had been beaten by rains and possibly being eaten up by termites.

He said: “The container they said documents were kept by past management has not only been beaten by rains over the years but even possibly being eaten up by termites.

“As directed by this committee, I told the past management officers about the need for them to help us out in answering this query with necessary documents which have not been made available for us.”

In his submission, the NSITF MD from 2010 to 2016, Umar Munir Abubakar, said that he was unaware of the query and had no explanations for it since the audit was not carried out during his tenure.

The head of the agency from May 2017 to July 2020, Adebayo Somefun, said that those in the account section should be able to trace the documents which the current general manager of finance alleged to have been locked up in an abandoned container within the premises of the agency in Abuja.

Angered by the statements made by the past and present NSITF officials, the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Mathew Urhoghide, ordered them to reappear before the committee with all the requested evidential documents unfailingly on Thursday, September 22, 2022.