From Okwe Obi, Abuja

The Federal Government has warned independent monitors against sharp practice especially assigning their official duties of the National Social Investment Programmes (NSIP), to third parties as it would attract sanctions.

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, gave the warning while inducting 46 supervisors at the weekend in Calabar.

Represented by the Ministry’s Director of Human Resources Management, Babatunde Jaji, she stated that the urgent need to capture data of beneficiaries of federal government’s Social Investment Programmes, informed the engagement of the services of Independent Monitors.

The Minister charged them to dedicate their time to data collection and to assist government in its aspirations of lifting more vulnerable Nigerians out of poverty.

In a statement by her Special Adviser on Media, Nneka Ikem Anibeze, she said: “Every independent monitor will be held accountable by the Ministry for the task given to you.

“The Ministry reserves the right to disengage an Independent Monitor for misconduct or noncompliance with set guidelines and directives.

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“I hereby urge you to carry out this assignment with an outmost sense of patriotism, diligence, and sincerity. We at the Ministry will not accept anything short of the set standards.”

On his part, Programme Manager, National Home Grown School Feeding Programme, Gabriel Okulaja applauded the Ministry for its continued support in lifting Nigerians above the poverty line and improving on the living standards of the citizenry.

Okujala said that the sustainability of the NSIPs depended on the team’s ability to deliver on the mandate.

Meanwhile, representative of the State Focal Person NSIP in Calabar, Barrister Sylvanus Iyang, extolled the efforts of the Federal Government in training and equipping the Independent Monitors for better performance to achieve the desired objective of the NSIP Programme.

The monitors are to be assigned to a number of N-Power, National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) and Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme (GEEP) beneficiaries for information records.

The Programme is being implemented in the 36 states including the Federal Capital Territory.