TheCable

The house of representatives’ ad hoc committee on unclaimed funds in commercial banks and the infractions of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) owes the federal government N3.8 billion.

Unyime Idem, chairman of the committee, disclosed this at the ongoing investigative hearing by the panel on Tuesday.

Idem said the sum represented the amount not remitted to the government by the agency from 2016 to 2018.

According to him, the agency submitted audited financial statements for only this period and the debt figure was arrived at by the committee from the documents it received.

“These figures are extracted from documents that they submitted before us. I wonder what would happen by the time they fully submit all the documents required by this committee,” he said.

Idem also said the National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) failed to remit N268 million to the federal government between 2015 and 2020.

“Based on the documents they have submitted so far, though they still have a lot of documents to submit; but so far, we have been able to discover infractions to the tune of N268 million,” the chairman said.

“This is money that belongs to the federal government. We have asked them to let us know when that money would be paid directly into the FG account.”

Modu Gana, executive director, operations, NSITF, and Ifeoma Mercy Isiugo-Abanihe, NABTEB registrar, who both appeared before the committee requested more time to reconcile their records.

Idem directed the organisations to provide details of revenue generation, collection and remittances up-to-date on Friday and appear before the committee next Tuesday.

He added that the money must be paid back to the government, especially considering the cash crunch the country is currently facing.