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
