Benue Fraud: Heads To Roll In Benue Over Massive Fraud At SUBEB

Heads may roll this week in the Benue State civil service following the dis­covery of a massive fraud in the Benue State Universal Basic Education Board (SUB­EB).

The alleged fraud said to have been uncovered by the committee on the review and repositioning of the state’s SUBEB amounted to several billions of naira.

Already, the committee had recommended that all directors of the board should be removed since they had become too familiar with the workings of the agency, making it easier for them to allegedly perpetrate the fraud.

This is as Governor Sam­uel Ortom has summoned all past chairmen of the board and persons connected with the fraud in any way to ap­pear before the State Execu­tive Council (SEC) on Mon­day (tomorrow).

The committee, headed by the state Commissioner for Education, Prof. Dennis Ityavyar, reportedly exposed the high profile fraud on Fri­day, while presenting the In­terim report to Ortom at Gov­ernment House, Makurdi.

While the commission­er noted that the financial records of the agency were ‘dirty’, he explained that moves by staff to cover up their deals led to mutilation and falsification of docu­ments.

The commissioner who reeled out figures worth over N8 Billion, however noted that the amount so far discovered may be a tip of the iceberg, since they were able to unravel the fraud per­petuated in only 20 out of the 23 Local Government Areas (LGAs) where the committee was able to investigate before the COVID – 19 lockdown.

Some of the money that may have been misappropri­ated include the non-remit­tance of about N7 billion to the Benue Internal Revenue Service (BIRS) by the agency.

others are the alleged pay­ment of about n323 million to garnishees over garnishing order issued against SUB­EB; N290 million alleged­ly deducted illegally from teachers’ salaries in the state and given to a supposed loan company; and N175 million impress, not retired.

Ityavyar noted that the committee discovered that N17 million and N45 million was ‘advanced’ to a staff of the board, within a period of two weeks, while anoth­er N95 million being part of teachers’ salaries were shared among SUBEB staff, among others.

The commissioner lamented the over-bloated wage bill of teachers in the state, insisting that the fig­ures presented by SUBEB were false.

The committee also ex­posed the agency, which had stated in its records, that it gave the governor 20 comput­er sets.

Ityavyar called for the re­view of the law establishing SUBEB, the appointment of a legal adviser for the board; separation of procurement office from that of the ac­countant, even as he recom­mended that a forensic audit of all accounts of the board be carried out.

According Ityavyar, “We recommend that a forensic auditor be hired in order to audit the financial records of the board because they are too dirty.

“Also, the role of the pro­curement officer be sepa­rated from Universal Basic Education Commission matching grant accountant.

“All directors in the board should be redeployed to the Office of Head of Service (Hos) to be posted to other MDAs, and no officer should serve (in the organisation) above four years.”

Responding, Ortom vowed to deal with anyone found to be involved in the allegations of misappropriation.

He frowned at the allega­tions that 20 computer sets were given to him by SUB­EB on the directives of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).

However, the director in charge exonerated the gov­ernor, when she observed that it was not true that Ortom was given comput­ers, when she displayed the computers in the full glare of the public.

The governor further stated that anyone indicted by the report would be in­vestigated and sanctioned, if found guilty.

He said: “This is an op­portunity to stop all the fraudulent activities going on in the state. I am not go­ing to look at anybody’s face. If you are not doing what I employed you for, I will take you out.”