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The Senate has exposed how Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) paid the sum of N38 billion as salaries to staff without approval by the federal government.
The chairman,Senate Committee on Public Accounts,Senator Mathew Urhoghide, uncovered the illegal payment of Salaries, following the 2018 report of Auditor General of the Federation.
The query said Audit observed that the Fund had been implementing a salary structure that was not approved by the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission. As a result, irregular payment of N38,219,919,530.32 by way of personnel cost was made to the staff of the Fund from 2012 to 2017.
It also said implementation of unapproved salary structure may result in wastage of public funds, as remuneration may be higher than the productivity level of staff.
It added that:”The Managing Director is required to provide the approval of the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission for the implementation of the Fund’s salaries structure”
The Managing Director of NSTIF, Dr. Michael Akabogu, has, however, claimed that the amount was approved through a letter dated 4th July , 2019 .
Examining the letter from National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission on the salary, it was observed it was written five years after the Commission started paying the salaries.
The Committee further discovered in the letter from National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission that an objection was raised about the payment of unapproved salaries by the commission.
The letter reads : “However, the following anomalies are observed in the consolidated salary of the General Manager and Deputy General Manager and are both places on GL17 respectively and One GL17, (General Manager) salary grade has 8 steps while another GL(Deputy General Manager) and GL 16 salary grades have 5 steps each.
“The Fund is, therefore, advised to arrange a meeting of the fund, it’s supervising Ministry and this Commission to rectify these anomalies before the next promotion exercise.”
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