FG Overhauls Social Investment Programmes To Ensure Transparency

In a move aimed at ensuring transparency, efficiency and prudent application of resources, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development said it has begun the process of rigorous overhauling of the National Social Investment Programmes (NSIPs).

According to a statement signed by the ministry’s Assistant Director of Information on Saturday night, Rhoda Ishaku Iliya, the process of overhauling the programmes will involve observing and enforcing due diligence in the National Social Investment Programmes (NSIPs) processes to ensure full compliance with extant regulations and best practices in public sector financial transactions.

The statement added that all present processes especially beneficiary enrolment and payments including consultancies are being scrutinized and stakeholders are being consulted for inputs that will lead to the total overhaul of the programmes in order to achieve the purposes for which they were established.

Also, the statement noted that the ministry will place all transactions under close watch in other to ensure that resources the federal government is putting in the hands of the most vulnerable groups in the country “reach them instead of ending in the pockets of middle men or double-dealers, who while receiving payments from the specific programmes also take up other paid jobs.”

Part of the statement reads: “The Ministry is working to ensure that the beneficiaries of all NSIPs designed to be exited after specified periods will be prepared and exited through the best of the options presently under consideration by the government.

“It is hereby emphasised that the Ministry is determined to give maximum effect to the laudable decision of government to institutionalize the NSIPs, the implementation of which is costing the government billions of Naira annually.

“The Ministry acknowledges that this effort to overhaul the programmes may temporarily slow down the tempo of implementation and will certainly not go down well with vested interests sure to be frustrated with the new direction, and who may therefore resort to the use of traditional and new media as well as misdirected public advocacy to distract government and derail the process.

“The Ministry is therefore appealing for maximum understanding and cooperation of all stakeholders and appeals to any misinformed members of the public to desist from actions that may distract the Ministry from discharging this important national mandate or even delay the implementation of these life-changing programmes.

“The Ministry and its agencies will continue to render services to Nigerians in humanitarian situations effectively, deliver relief to those affected by disasters, evolve and implement policies that drive social development and facilitate economic inclusion for the benefit of the most vulnerable in the country especially through the N-Power, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), Conditional Cash Transfer as well as the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme and other programmes rolled out by the present administration,” it concluded.

The Minister in charge of the ministry, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq had disclosed during an interview with TVC some days ago that Npower volunteers will be paid soon. She did not however, reveal when the payment will be made.

Farouq’s disclosure followed calls by the National Association of Npower Volunteers (NANV) for her to resign after she was alleged to have refused to pay them their January stipends.

A top source in the ministry had also revealed that the minister has approved funds for payment to the volunteers.