The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has claimed that termites have eaten documents that would help justify the spending of N17.158bn by its management.
The claim was made by its Managing Director, Micheal Akabogu, when he appeared before the Senate Public Accounts Committee (SPAC) on Friday, August 12, 2022.
He further claimed that rain could also have played a part in the destruction of the documents.
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The Senate Committee which had previously interviewed the past and current management on the transfer of the N17.158bn stated that the NSITF failed to produce documents to show how it spent the huge sum between January and December 2013.
The Quest Times reports that the N17.158 billion, as stated in the 2018 audit report of the office of the auditor-general of the federation, 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.
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A query issued by the Sen Uroghide-led committee reads; “The management of the NSITF as shown in statements of Account No. 1750011691 with Skye Bank Plc, for the period January 2013 to December 20, 2013, and Statements of Account No. 2001754610 with First Bank Plc for the period January 7, 2013, to February 28, 2013, transferred amounts totalling N 17,158,883,034.69 billion to some persons and companies from these accounts.
“However, payment vouchers relating to the transfers together with their supporting documents were not provided for audit. Consequently, the purpose(s) for the transfers could not be authenticated.
“These are in violation of financial rule 601 which states that, ‘All payment entries in the cashbook/accounts shall be vouched for on one of the prescribed treasury forms. Vouchers shall be made out in favour of the person or persons to whom the money is actually due.
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“Under no circumstances shall a cheque be raised, or cash paid for services for which a voucher has not been raised.”
Responding to the query, NSITF MD, Akabogu revealed that termites and rain over the years have destroyed the documents, stating that he has reached out to past management to help respond to the query with necessary documents.
He said, “The container where the said documents were kept by past management has not only been beaten by rains over the years but even possibly been 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.”