NSITF, Described As Corrupt By ICPC, Invites Commission To Investigate Its Records

Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has invited the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate its records, saying it was unfair for the Commission to describe the Fund as corrupt.

The ICPC had recently listed the Fund among 52 agencies of the government designated as having “High Corruption Risk (HCR)” and were flagged for the attention of the public.

The agencies were identified as non-responsive, implying that they did not respond to enquiries sent to them.

But responding to the designation, the General Manager/Head of Corporate Affairs of the Fund, Ijeoma Oji-Okoronkwo,  said the NSITF takes accusations of corruption very seriously.

According to her, the agency had not defaulted in its mandate and that of the presidential directives on transparency and accountability.

Okoronkwo said, “The allegation of corruption against the Fund which was taken out of context to suit a negative purpose is therefore unfounded and an attempt to distract the management from its commitments to carry out its mandates.

“Although NSITF in the past has had to deal with several negative press attributed to the past board and some members of management of the Fund, the new board (put up 2019), and the new management under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and the supervision of the  minister for Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige have been piloting the affairs of the Fund in line with all relevant Laws,
regulations and guidelines.”

She added that: “On the same premise, we reiterate that the alleged complaints by ‘Anonymous staff’ are more imaginary than real. They are the work of a few who are disgruntled that due process is now here and believe that continuous turmoil and confusion in the organisation will one way or the other benefit them. We, therefore, put it on record that our records are available. The ICPC which has the mandate of  carrying out system reviews for MDAs is invited to do a thorough and fair system study of the Fund to enable the Fund identify gaps, build more robust internal controls and systems to prevent and detect instances of corruption and report the same.”

Meanwhile, THE WHISTLER had reported on 10th November, 2022, that the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance, and Financial Institutions had accused the management of the NSITF of exploitative tax deductions, and of frustrating the upward review of workers salary.

They also lamented 18 months of non-remittance of pensions to their Retirement Savings Account.

President of the worker’s association, Balla Tijani, made the allegations during the association’s congress meeting in Abuja.