From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
THE new Managing Director of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Dr. Michael Akabogu, has assured Nigerians of the agency’s zeal to deliver on its mandate and build a future different from the controversial past of the organisation.
He said the cardinal focus of the new management was to ensure proper conduct of the affairs of the agency as the only way to restore the confidence of the Nigerian public in the administration of its duties.
Akabogu stated this in Abuja in reaction to last week’s indictment of the agency by the Senate for misappropriating N84 billion.
A statement by Alexandra Mede, deputy general manager, Corporate Affairs quoted the NSITF boss as saying the development had nothing to do with the current management, which according to him, had charted a fresh direction to make good out of the bad record of the agency by creating a new future for the NSITF.
“Importantly, what the Senate Public Account Committee did is in exercise of its statutory oversight function but it is equally important to inform the public that what the committee probed is a cumulative of financial violations by successive management that ran the agency between 2012 and 2020. This is important to clear ambiguity and forestall wrong finger pointing .
“Any deviation from this well laid path to efficient and honest stewardship is a return to Egypt, which we collectively assured the President and the people of Nigeria, through the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, the day we were inaugurated, that we shall sacrifice anything to guard against.”
The MD also said some of the shortcomings which the Senate raised in its findings such as the unapproved salary structure had been redressed in 2019 when the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission gave its approval to the structure. As a matter of fact, the infractions that formed the basis of the indictment by Senate are negative trails of financial breaches which also have been variously probed since the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation raised its flag in 2015.
“The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has probed and taken the former chairman of the Board and five other senior officials including the managing director and three directors to court and recovered huge sums of money and property. Other indicted staff members were removed from office. There was also the Administrative Panel of Inquiry led by C.K Awotu, set up by the Minister of Labour and Employment in 2017 which made far reaching recommendations.”
