Pension Scam Latest: More than N20 Billion Newly Discovered in Dormant Accounts

The last has definitely not been heard of the pension scam that recently hit the country as the Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Dr. Abdulrasheed Maina, during an interview with journalists yesterday in Abuja, disclosed that it had found another N20 billion stolen pension funds. Maina said the funds were hidden in some dormant accounts in some banks. However, he said no reports have been made to the authorities concerned because investigations were still ongoing.

His words: “Recently, we discovered some money hidden in other accounts, apart from the N221 billion we have recovered and sent to the government… I did not disclose this earlier because we are still under investigation. The money is over N20 billion.

“The amount has been hidden in some accounts that are dormant for over three years… As soon as we get through with our investigation, we will report to the Minister of Finance to instruct the Accountant-General to move the money” he said.

Maina also expressed sadness that the Senate Joint Committee on Establishment and Public Service and States and Local Governments Administration, was being misled into maligning the task team. He continues: “Our detractors thought we have an account and we are keeping money.

 We only go to the bank, see account balance and write what we have observed. We have all the security agencies in our midst… “We have this coordination but people don’t know. They give false information to the Senate Committee and they sit down on false information without verifying… If you are given an assignment as a committee, I feel the first person you will look for is the person in charge of the team.

“We are the depository of the database of the civil service, we ought to have been invited first so that we can go round the country with the committee investigating management of pension fund but nobody invited us” he said.

He then accused corrupt persons within the system, who were feeding fat through the loopholes, as the ones fighting hard to make sure that the team was discredited: “They want to distract us. It is not about anything but corruption fighting back,” he said.

Source: theheraldng.com

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Ex-Director in prison custody over N439m pension funds scam

A Federal High Court in Abuja, yesterday, remanded a former Director of the Pensions Department, Office of the Head of Service of the Federation, Dr. Sani Shuaibu, in prison for allegedly diverting N439 million from pension funds.

Shuaibu was sent to prison shortly after he pleaded not guilty to an amended four-count criminal charge preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, yesterday.

The anti-graft agency told the court that the ex-pension boss connived with four separate companies and diverted funds meant for retired pensioners in the country, saying it had successfully traced how some of the looted funds were spent by the accused person.

The firms, the accusation

EFCC further gave names of the conniving companies, which it also joined as accused persons in the matter, as Badawulu Ventures Limited, Ebunu Attah Investment, Muha Millenium Motors Limited and Riba-ile Petroleum Limited.

The companies were said to have provided their bank accounts for the illicit transfer of monies from the pension funds, sequel to an agreed sharing formula between them and the former pensions department boss.

The prosecuting agency said it had garnered sufficient evidence to prove that the 1st accused person, Dr. Shaibu, used proceeds of the uncanny deal to purchase a hotel in Abuja, adding that the said fraud was perpetuated at various times between April 2009 and March 15, 2010.

Specifically, the ex-pension boss was accused of conspiring with the accused companies to purchase Brifina Hotels Limited, situated at Plot 1106 Cadastral Zone BO2 Durumi District Area 1, Abuja, with Certificate of Occupancy No: 1807w-1cc4z-6723r-cf4eu-20, property of one A. E. Bright Future Motors Nig. Ltd, to the tune of N399 million, and used another N40 million to renovate the hotel.

EFCC noted that the reason the 1st accused person embraced the rigorous process of first transferring the pension funds to the accounts of the companies before withdrawing same through proxies, was to conceal the illicit origin of the resources, thereby committed an offence contrary to section 17(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004 and punishable under section 14 (1) (b) of the same Act.

No bail

Meanwhile, shortly after the accused person took his plea yesterday, trial Justice Adamu Bello declined to allow him on bail, saying he should remain in prison till tomorrow when the merit of his bail application would be considered.

His bail request was turned down by the trial judge, following a vehement objection raised by the prosecuting counsel, Mr. Godwin Obla.

Though the defence counsel, Mr. Sunday I. Ameh, SAN, pleaded the court to grant his client bail on self-recognition, noting that not only had the court seized the international passport of the accused person ab-initio, but also in view of the fact that the said hotel was a fixed asset that could be confiscated, should he jump bail.

EFCC, however, persuaded the trial judge to refuse the plea, alleging that the pension boss threatened to kill four of its principal witnesses.

EFCC lawyer, Obla, told the court that the affected witnesses had already written a “Save Our Soul” letter to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Criminal Investigation Department, CID, in Abuja, even as he tendered the said letter as an exhibit before the court.

Obla further drew attention of the court to the fact that the erstwhile pension boss was equally facing a similar trial over his alleged involvement in another N12 billion pension scam.

He noted that the accused person was also facing trial alongside five others for allegedly swindling the Federal Government through over 130 bogus contracts purportedly awarded to 25 different companies between 2008 and 2010.

Others also on trial are the Deputy Director, Pensions Finance and Account at the Office of the Head of Service, who was a signa-tory to pension accounts, Mrs Phina Ukamaka Chidi; an ex-Assistant Director in-Charge of Variation, Mr Mohammed Ahmed; the cash officer of pensions accounts, Mr. Garba Abdullahi Tahir, and the Head Final Accounts at the OHCSF, Mr. Emmanuel Olanipekun.

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N26bn Police Pension funds traced to FirstBank, Fidelity, UBA, others

Senate Joint Committee on Establishment, States and Local Governments, yesterday, traced N26 billion belonging to the Police Pension Funds to five commercial banks.

The committee probing the alleged fraudulent management of the pension scheme also uncovered four illegal accounts holding N3 billion of pension funds in Guarantee Trust Bank, GTB.

Besides, the committee has summoned two civil servants, Mr. Ibrahim Abdulkarim of the Ministry of Transport and Idu Mathias to appear before it and explain why over N140 million was allegedly siphoned through their accounts.

The N26 billion traced to GTB, First Bank, Fidelity Bank, Ecobank and UBA formed part of the N28 billion believed to have been recovered by the chairman of Pension Reform Task Team, PRTT, Alhaji Abdulrasheed Maina.

But Assistant Chief Accountant in the Police Pension Office, Mr. Toyin Ishola, who gave the breakdown of the funds lodged in the banks disputed the claims that the money was recovered by Maina.

He told the committee that no money was recovered because they were all deposited in accounts that were frozen by the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, following allegations of fraud at the Police Pension Office.

Breaking down the lodgments, he said: “First Bank, Maitama has N10 billion; Fidelity Bank N8 billion; UBA has N3 billion; Ecobank has N3 billion and GTB, N3 billion. This money forms part of the N31 billion that the chairman of the task team said he recovered, but they have been there in frozen accounts.”

On the illegal account in GTB, Managing Director of the bank, Mr. Segun Agbaje, who appeared before the committee confirmed that the accounts were opened without authorization from Accountant General of the Federation, AGF.

Agbaje while responding to questions from the committee chairman, Senator Aloysius Etok and co-chairman, Kabiru Gaya, said it was possible to deposit funds on placement in the name of a person without opening an account.

Senate summons 2 civil servants

Meanwhile, the committee has ordered Abdulkarim and Mathias to appear before it today to explain why over N140 million was siphoned through their accounts with Zenith Bank.

Senator Gaya who again drew the attention of the Executive Director of Zenith Bank, Andy Ojie to multiple cash withdrawals of N140 million by Abdulkarim and Mathias within eight days wondered why civil servants should make such transactions.

He asked: “These are civil servants who are in charge of pension on daily basis. We have transfer of N11.6 million, N86 million and N10.5 million. I am not comfortable where account opened by a civil servant would be having over N8 million everyday for over eight days. Is it salary? Over N100 million paid into an individual account?”

But Mr. Ojei told the committee that it was not salary account, adding that most of the transactions were through electronic transfer and that the last transaction by Abdulkarim was withdrawal of N33,000 on March 20.

Etok while issuing the summons said, “Ibrahim Abdulkarim must appear before us tomorrow (today). He is from the Ministry of Transport. Idu Mathias too, a lot of money has been siphoned through their accounts.”

Source:Vanguardngr

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KPMG report reveal excesses in Maina’s payment mandate

KPMG, the audit firm contracted to review the activities of the pension task force team and that of the Police Pension Office (PPO), has made two startling revelations which expose the huge lax regulatory oversight and internal control flaws in pension fund management. 

The first finding reveals the impunity with which Abdulrasheed Maina, head of the pension task team, allegedly exceeded his payment mandate, authorising a total of N396.23 million in irregular payments from an account that has a specific purpose other than that. The second is how he allegedly escalated the running cost for PPO to N480 million in two months, N400 million more than the N80 million appropriated in the 2011 budget from an account domiciled in First Bank Plc.

 “Both actions highlight the complex and confusing regulation for auditing pension funds in the country,” according to a core PenCom insider. “He could pull that off because nobody has the specific duty to check and control such huge level of stealing.” Maina authorised payment of the amount for estacode and Duty Tour Allowance (DTA) described as overhead/running cost from PPO Unity Bank account number 233183485601000300.

 The fund in the account is specifically for the payment of pension arrears according to Wada Ahmed, the former director, PPO, in his handover note of June 8, 2011. A breakdown of the payments described as irregular by KPMG, include N177.23 million expended on DTA and estacode on the offshore biometric capturing exercise, N184.4 million spent on biometric capturing exercise within the country and another N34.6 million. Only N140 million of the N177.23 million spent on biometric data exercise in the Diaspora was captured by the KPMG team and featured in its report to Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy.

Other expenditures of N184.4 million and N34.6 million, said to have been spent on biometric data capturing exercise within the country were hidden from the KPMG team and as such were not reflected in its report. Findings on the N34.6 million revealed that the actual expenditure was N17.3 million but was duplicated, with two supporting documents to bring it to N34.6 million. Also, while one set of documents said the N17.3 million payments was for the entire exercise in the 36 states of the federation and the FCT, the other set of documents for the other N17.3 million said it was for the exercise only in the North East zone. Furthermore, the covering memo for the two sets of documents said the payment was for members of the task team but observation of the attached names showed that one Ayoka S was the only member of the team that featured on the two documents which contained a total of 26 names. 

Another issue was that the memo and the supporting documents were raised on July 25, 2011 while the e-payment schedule according to the Unity Bank’s stamp was received on July 12, 2011. Maina also approved the first documents for payment on July 7, 2011 while the second set was approved for payment on July 14, 2011. According to the two sets of documents signed by I. Atabor on July 25, 2011 and paid from the Unity Bank account, the first set of documents show that N17.284 million was for the BTA and other travelling allowances approved for the monitoring officers for the biometric data capture throughout the federation vide C/man PRIT approval on page 74 dated July 7, 2011 file number PPO/163 touring advance.

The document marked PPO/PEN/727 noted that the money was for 13 persons including Tunji Olaopa and two personal aides, Goni Aji Bukar and two personal aides, A.M Daniel Nwaobia (Mrs) and one personal aide. Others are Abdullahi A.B, Olalekan Ajayi, Murualis Ceojina (Mrs), Eluma Matthias and T.D Aiyedona. It read thus: “Sequel to the approval of the head of service of the federation on the reform of the police pension office by the task team on pension reforms (TTPR), the reform team has embarked on nationwide biometrics verification of Police pensioners for a period of 21 days.

 “Accordingly, the HOSF has approved that the following officers should monitor the conduct of the exercise in the 36 states of the Federation including Abuja. The e-payment was approved by both Abdullahi and Magaji and sent to Unity Bank on July 11, 2011.” The memo was raised on July 25, 2011 but Unity Bank got the e-payment schedule on July 12, 2011. The e-payment schedule also stated that it was for eight persons as against 13 persons in the supporting document. 

The Federal Government voucher with classification code 023005006001302 attached to the first set of documents showed that it was vetted and cleared on July 26 2011. The other N17.3 million in the second set of documents marked PPO/PEN/725 noted that it was for DTA and other travelling allowances approved for the task team on pension reform members to travel nationwide for biometric enrollment of police pensioners for a period of 21 days vide C/man PRTT approval on page 2 dated July 14, 2011 file number PPO/655. The documents reads: “Sequel to the approval by the head of the civil service of the federation on the reform of the Police pension office by the task team on pension reforms (TTPR), the reform team has embarked on a nationwide biometric enrollment of police pensioners for a period of 21 days”.

It went further “accordingly, the HOSF has approved that the following officers should monitor the conduct of the exercise in North East Zone and the earlier group to monitor the exercise in North West Zone”. The officers, according to the second set of documents, are Charles Bonat and two personal aides, Mohammed Dauda and two personal aides, Nimfel Nanven and one personal aide. Others are Ayo Otepola, Danmamman .M, Ayoka S (DCP), Bala M, and Abbey I. Like the first set of documents, observation of the supporting documents for the second set revealed some anomalies. 

The memo and the supporting documents were raised on July 25 but were approved by Maina for payment on July 14, 2011. The e-payment schedule that was received on July 12, 2011 at Unity Bank and signed by both Yusuf and Magaji, stated that the payment was for eight persons as against 13 persons listed in the supporting documents. Further investigation by BusinessDay showed that Maina tried to defend the action by referring to the letter in which he was drafted to the PPO. Referring to a letter from Afolabi referenced HCSF/062/S.I/II/21 of June 8, 2001, he said he interpreted the clause “oversee the operations of the police pension office” in the letter to mean that “the task team had the authority to take over the management of PPO with Maina assuming the role of accounting officer”. But Afolabi countered, stating that Maina was not an accounting officer because Adeyemi , the current director of PPO was appointed June 6, 2011, three days to the drafting of Maina to the PPO4.

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Auditors:No police retiree captured in offshore biometric trips

Federal government auditors from the office of the Auditor-General for the Federation have given a damning report on the offshore biometric data capturing exercise for police retirees, describing it as a fraud.

The Abdulrashid Maina- led Pension Reform Task Team took N140 million from the Police Pension Fund for biometric capturing of police retirees in the Diaspora. The countries visited include South Africa, Ghana,  the United Kingdom, as well as New-York, and Atlanta in the United States.

In the report referenced OAuGF/LISD/POL.PEN/VOL.1/15 and signed by F.N Anyanwu, director, Legislature, Judiciary and Security Agencies, the auditors say their evaluation of the exercise showed that it was purposeless and had no objectives.  The audit report has been sent to the permanent secretary, Police Affairs Office, the finance ministry and the office of the Head of Service.

“An evaluation of the biometric data capturing exercise scheduled for five cities outside the shores of Nigeria, showed that the programme was ill-timed and not properly planned and structured to achieve any particular purpose and or objectives”.

The office of the Auditor-General of the Federation based its assessment on five deductions, including improper planning of the assignment in the diaspora, no police retiree captured in the diaspora, no payment vouchers for payment totaling N140.23 million and that payments totaling N130.02 million were made before issuance of memos concerning such disbursements.

Regarding improper planning, the auditors noted that the Police Pension Office had never at any point in  recent years, sent officers overseas for verification exercise.

“There were no documented retirees in Diaspora recorded in the Police Pension office to warrant such trips. More so, the letters sent to the embassies with the list of officers nominated for the biometric exercise in those countries were haphazardly compiled. For example, the passport numbers of the officers were not indicated and single names were used in the letter to the embassies and the nominees had no record of retirees to capture”.

The audit report which noted that no police retiree was captured in the exercise in the diaspora, added that two out of the five teams visited Ghana and South Africa.

“However, report of each of the teams showed that no single police retiree turned up for the exercise, despite concerted effort by the Nigerian high commissioners in those countries”

“Meanwhile, no report was made available to me in respect of the other three centers in Atlanta, London and New York” the report stated.

The audit report also stated that the payment did not follow office procedure where a voucher is raised before payment. “Payment vouchers were not raised in support of the said payments totaling N140,238,081 and they were not recorded in the cash book”.

The auditors who requested the pension team to explain the anomalies, observed that the motive behind the payment was not the biometric exercise, as the payment had long been made before the memos on the exercise.

“Five of the memos in respect of the Diaspora biometric exercise were raised on 6 August, while the sixth memo was raised on 9 August, 2011. All the memos were approved by the Chairman, Pension Task Team on August  9, 2011.

“However it was observed that five of the payment mandates for amount totaling N130, 029,280 raised in respect of these approvals were signed by the signatories on July 13,  2011. The said payments were received by the bank on 14 July 2011 and payments effected same day, indicating that the payments occurred three weeks before memos were raised and approvals obtained”.

Source:businessdayonline

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Pension task force blows N184.4m on allowance

Fresh revelations in the police pension scam have revealed how the Abdulrashid Maina-led Pension Recovery Task Team spent N184.4 million as duty tour allowance (DTA) for personnel that were involved in the biometric exercise for police retirees across the nation.

The taskforce team claimed the amount was spent on 619 personnel that were involved in the exercise nationwide. A breakdown of the N184.4 million by BusinessDay shows that N160.4 million was spent on the 551 personnel that were used for the exercise, N15.5 million spent on security agencies and others that monitored the exercise, and an additional N8.5 million spent on members of the task force.

 The KPMG team that was employed by the Federal Government to audit the activities of the task force in the Police Pension Office was denied the above information, although KPMG auditors had access to information pertaining to offshore biometric capturing in addition to others. According to a state-by-state breakdown prepared by the Pension Recovery Task Team, the Maina-led team said it spent the largest chunk of the money in Lagos, where N10.6 million was spent on 32 people who were involved in the exercise. The exercise has, however, thrown up more questions than answers as BusinessDay investigations show it was needless and an avenue to siphon money from the police pension treasury.

 According to sources, a similar exercise was held last year in which only N60 million was spent nationwide. Records from the Police Pension Office show that the number of personnel said to have been used by the task force were cooked up, just to loot the police pension fund. BusinessDay comparison of the pension task force expenditure with that of similar ongoing biometric capturing exercise of the Defence Headquarters showed that the exercise by the task force gulped a huge sum of money. Our findings show that the Defence Headquarters which is currently capturing the next of kins (NoKs) of its military personnel has been using only four personnel in an exercise that has drawn over 2000 participants from across the country.

 Also, sources in the Police Pension Office (PPO) told BusinessDay that the large number of staff claimed to have been used by the task force to perform the biometric capturing exercise was unrealistic and untenable due to the number of retirees in some states. For instance, they argue that the number of retirees in Abuja is about 230 and therefore the task force could not have used 61 personnel in addition to those that monitored the exercise.

 Another method allegedly used by the task force is in the area of air fares claimed to have been given to those who monitored the exercise in Abuja, Nasarawa, Niger, Benue and other neighbouring states where there are no functional airports. Further state-by-state breakdown shows that 12 people were involved in the exercise in Aba, where N4.42 million was expended. 

N4.86 million was collected by16 people in Adamawa; N4.29 million on 15 people in Akwa-Ibom, N4.97 million on 15 in Anambra and N3.89 million on 14 people in Bauchi. Others are N4.35 million on 14 people in Bayelsa, N5.21 million on 16 people in Borno, N4.64 million on 15 people in Benue, N4.229 million on 14 people in Cross River, N4.44 million on 15 in Delta, N3.32 million on 11 in Ebonyi, N4.43 million on 16 in Edo and N4.65 million on 15 in Ekiti State.

The task force also claimed to have spent N5.39 million on 17 people in Enugu, 61 people expended N14.7 million in the FCT (Abuja), 12 people got N3.17 million in Gombe, and 13 people got N3.48 million in Imo. Moreover, the team claimed to have spent N2.81 million on 10 people in Jigawa, N6.049 million on 20 people in Kaduna, N3.80 million in Kano, N3.19 million on 13 people in Katsina and N2.64 million on nine people in Kebbi. Eighteen people, according to the task force were involved in the exercise in Kogi where it claimed it spent N5.14 million. 

12 people were said to be involved in the exercise in Kwara and the task force claimed it spent N3.93 million. For Nasarawa, the team said nine people were involved and spent N2.23 million. 16 people were involved in the exercise in Niger and the task force team expended N3.58 million. In Ogun State, 11 people expended N2.36 million, 13 people expended N3.91 million in Ondo, nine people were said to be involved in Osun State and the task force team claimed it spent N2.72 million. 

15 people were involved in Oyo, the team spent N4.04 million, 13 were used for the exercise in Plateau and it spent N3.42 million, while N4.61 million was paid to 14 people that took part in the exercise in Rivers. According to the Maina-led team, 10 people that took part in the exercise in Sokoto expended N2.94 million, while eight people spent N2.46 million in Taraba.

In Yobe, eight people were involved and spent N2.54 million while seven people that were part of the exercise in Zamfara spent N2.19 million. Meanwhile, to unravel how the police pension fund was mismanaged and allegedly laundered through banks, the Senate joint committees on Establishment and Public Service yesterday summoned seven bank managing directors (MDs) who failed to appear before it at the public hearing on the management of the pension funds. 

Those expected to appear before the Senate joint committees on April 16 with documentary details are the managing directors of First Bank, Skye Bank, GTBank, Fidelity Bank; Union Bank; Zenith Bank and Diamond Bank.

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Pension probe: Senate uncovers N3bn in illegal account

Abdulrasheed Maina

Senate joint committee on establishment, states and local governments, yesterday, uncovered an illegal account with the United Bank for Africa, UBA, holding N3 billion belonging to the Police Pension Office.

The committee’s finding, while probing the management of police pension fund, showed that the N3 billion was deposited in the account on the same day it was opened under the name of Adamu Salihu and DG (director general).

The account was also said to have been opened with different codes without the authorisation of the Accountant General of the Federation.

The findings prompted the committee to summon chief executives of seven banks in the country to appear before it to explain their roles in the alleged illegalities in the Federal Government pension schemes.

Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, was also summoned by the committee to appear and answer questions on the controversial account.

The banks summoned to appear before the committee on April 16 are Union Bank, FirstBank, Diamond Bank, GTB, Zenith Bank, Skye Bank and Fidelity Bank.

Chairman of the Committee, Senator Aloysius Etok, while issuing the summons said: “We will not hesitate to use the hammer given to us by the constitution on the banks. They must appear compulsorily on April 16,  2012.”

On illegal N3bn account

On the illegal N3 billion account with UBA, Executive Director in charge of northern region of the bank, Mr. Dan Okeke, who appeared before the committee said it was unlikely for an account to be opened with such names.

Okeke said: “It will be highly unlikely for two persons to have  the same account. I will be very surprised if that happened in my bank. There could be system failure or computer malfunction, but under normal circumstances, no two names, whether individual or corporate, can have one account.”

He also told the committee that it was normal for the bank to open account in an emergency situation pending the authorisation of the Accountant General of the Federation, adding that the money would, however, be blocked until all parties to the account had meet the bank’s requirement.

According to him, “in that situation, we can render a service of urgency to a customer but we would block the fund for 30 days and if nothing happens within that period, we would return the fund to the source to be sure everybody is protected. Simply put, it is possible in such a situation to open an account for a customer.”

Also two operatives of the EFCC who appeared before the committee told the Senators that a teacher in a secondary school in Jigawa State was used to siphon millions of naira belonging to the Police Pension.

One of them, Mr. Abdullahi Sheik, who went to Sokoto State to monitor payment of the pension to retirees from Customs, Immigrations and Police said he spent six days in the state without meeting with the payment officer.

He said he was, however, told that the man had carried out the payments without his knowledge even when he kept making daily visits to federal secretariat, Sokoto, where the exercise was supposed to have taken place.

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