We’ll be fair and ensure justice to all —Khaleel, Chairman NSITF Investigative panel

The Presidential Joint Board and Audit Investigation Panel on Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has pledged to be fair and ensure justice to all in the course of their duty.

The Chairman of the Board, Comrade Ibraheem Khaleel, who gave the assurance, said the members of the committee saw their appointment to handle the investigation as a huge privilege and promised that they would not fail Nigerians.

Khaleel, who spoke to Nigerian Tribune on their readiness to carry out the assignment without fear or favour, said none of those involved would be cheated, but would all be allowed to supply sufficient evidence to support their cases.

Khaleel is the representative of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on the board and the Chairperson of the Audit Committee of the NSITF Board.  He said: “We appreciate the government, particularly the presidency, in approving us to handle this investigative panel exercise and we see it as a huge privilege. We assure the Presidency and the government at large and Nigerians that we will not fail them.

“We will do our best to ensure that we cross the ‘t’ and dot the ‘i’ as much as possible and we will ensure that justice prevails. Nobody among the people alleged to have been involved will be cheated. We will give them fair hearing and allow them to defend themselves. We will allow them to supply us with sufficient evidence. So, we will be fair to all, we will ensure that the issue of fight against corruption, which is one of the cardinal principles of this government, is achieved in our own way.”

While inaugurating the panel, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mr. William Alo, said the NSITF is a government owned human centred entity, established to address the socio-economic needs in the world of work by providing compensation to insured employees who suffer from occupational diseases, sustain injuries or disability from accident or even death during or in the course of employment.

In order to discharge this very noble mandate, the NSITF enabling Act provides that employers of labour should make financial contributions to the Fund of the NSITF. This includes employers in both the private and public sectors of the formal economy and the NSITF is the statutory custodian of these funds.

According to the minister, it therefore becomes very worrisome when there are issues surrounding and emanating from the management of these funds entrusted to the NSITF especially when seemingly done in transgression of extant rules, regulations and laws guiding due processes for the management of funds and general conducts/ethics in the public service.

He emphasized that this becomes even more worrisome when preliminary investigations yield alarming results.

In order to check the observed infractions on the Financial Regulations, Procurement Act, Public Service Rules, and other relevant and extant documents regulating activities in the Public Service, it became necessary to establish the Presidential Joint Board and Audit Investigation Panel.

According to its Terms of Reference, the panel is to: look into all the Infractions of the Procurement Act and Financial Regulations raised by the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) Periodic Check Report 2015-2019, and the administrative panel’s report into same periodic report of the AGF but not yet addressed to date, among others.

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