Reports confirms that the Immediate past Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has been invited by the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) for questioning in connection with the ongoing probe at the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), an agency he supervised as minister during former President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure.
A competent source, who confirmed Ngige’s invitation on Wednesday night, said the former Anambra State governor honoured the invitation without the usual excuses usually tendered by some past high-profile personalities.
“I think he was invited in respect of an ongoing investigation at NSITF when he was minister of Labour. He is still coming back to conclude his interview,” disclosed our source.
Details about his invitation were still sketchy last night.
It would be recalled that in 2020, the former Minister accused the suspended management of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) of misappropriating N48 billion.
Ngige made the allegation while appearing in an investigative hearing at the House of Representatives over the alleged illegal suspension of the management of the agency. The minister claimed that the management withdrew the amount through fake contracts, the proceeds of which were diverted into private pockets.
During the appearance, he pointed out that there were also irregular payments of salaries and allowances of N10 million, which were not in line with the condition of service of the organization or any reference to the Office of the Minister.
Amongst other claims, he said the suspended management while on leave, travelled outside the country through first class with their spouses, and paid themselves N9.8 million each without the approval of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
Going further, Ngige accused them of engaging the services of legal practitioners at the sum of N180 million without the approval of the Attorney-General of the Federation. He added that they spent N146 million on vehicles, and on May 31, 2020, awarded 30 contracts worth N332 billion, which were split into smaller components of N49 million.
He disclosed that the contract splitting was to enable the transactions to fall within the threshold allowed by law for the NSITF management to award contracts.
Ngige stated that the suspended NSITF management spent N570 million on health insurance outside the National Health Insurance Scheme.
He added that since 2012, the NSITF had not submitted records of its audited accounts to the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, in line with the extant laws.
It was noted that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had since dragged the NSITF management to court on corruption charges.
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