okays reconstitution of NSITF Board, appoints new MD
President Muhammadu Buhari, has asked the former Managing Director of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Bayo Somefun and three former Executive Directors of the Fund, Jasper Azuatalam, Tijani Sulaiman and Mrs. Olukemi Nelson, to refund the sum of N181, 056 billion naira to the NSITF Treasury.
Also, nine top Management staff whose appointments were terminated for various infractions and who have also benefitted from the excess remuneration are to refund such overpayments to the Panel.
A statement made available to newsmen on Monday in Abuja by Deputy Director Press, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Mr. Charles Akpan, described the said amount to be refunded as, “being illegal over payments in salaries, allowances such as overseas travels, leave allowances for self and spouses in overseas, house allowance, DSTV and club registration and extraneous allowances not approved by the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC).”
The President also approved and directed the Head of Service of the Federation to terminate the appointment and dismiss the erstwhile Head of Procurement Department Engr. AbdulrasheedLawalfrom the Public Service with effect from the date of suspension.
In addition, President Buhari equally directed a “total overhaul” of the Procurement Department of the NSITF with a new team of Procurement Officers be trained from the pool of existing Staff and deployed to the Departmen twhile all the staff that have been serving there from 2017 – 2020 be removed and made to undergo disciplinary actions for offences ranging from injection of extraneous companies and projects after advertisement and bidding has been concluded, contract splitting, initiation of procurement contract without budgetary allocation, conversion and switching of one fully bided project to another.