N24bn Police Pension: Okonjo-Iweala Lied – Reps



The House committee on Public Accounts has faulted claims made by the minister of Finance and coordinating minister of the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala that N24 billion police pension fund is intact, saying facts at its disposal show otherwise.
At a resumed hearing on the matter yesterday, the members of the House who met with the director general of Pension Transitional Arrangement Department (PTAD), Mrs Nellie Mayshak and her team, representatives of the office of the Accountant General of the federation and other related parties, said Okonjo-Iweala has to prove that she was not just ignorant of the facts or deliberately misleading the public.
“We challenge her to a Public debate where all the media houses will be present and will be broadcasted live on all Television stations, so Nigerians will know whether or not the N24billion was not missing”, chairman of the committee, Hon Solomon Olamilekan declared.
The lawmaker added, “all these documents being brandished around in defence of the missing N24billion are fraudulent, forged and fake which cannot stand the test of time. They have nothing to do with the missing money. Come to think of it, the minister claimed that the money was kept in an account. In which bank and how much was the interest since it was kept in the bank? She also claimed that the money had been paid into the treasury, where is the official receipt issued to that effect?
The lawmakers thereafter requested Mayshak to avail them with bank statements detailing the  in-flows and out-flows of the account  where the money was lodged at the First Bank of Nigeria Plc between 2009 and 2012 which must be duly signed by the bank as its officials might be invited by the Committee to give evidence on its operations.
To substantiate claims that the money is intact, the committee directed that all the relevant documents should be brought before it on March, 26th.
An attempt by a director in the office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Salau Suberu to explain that the funds were diverted to capital projects was rejected by the lawmakers. Salau had informed the committee that following a directive that all unspent money should be returned to the treasury by December 31, there was a mop up on December 31st 2012 in the account of the Police Pension Fund and about N29 billion was diverted to finance other capital projects.
The lawmakers faulted the claims based on the position of   the Finance Minister that the account had been frozen when it was discovered that it was in excess and later paid into the Federation account as unspent funds.

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