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.
