By Yusuf Boluwatife
The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, on Friday, said it has commenced the payment of arrears of stipends for batches A and B of the 2016 and 2018 volunteers of the N-Power programme nationwide.
According to The PUNCH, this was contained in a statement issued by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Alhaji Bashir Alkali, in Abuja.
Alkali said 14,021 volunteers were flagged red in March 2020 by the Federal Government payment system, the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System for various reasons.
According to him, the reasons include beneficiaries holding multiple bank accounts and receiving other payments such as salaries and allowances from multiple Federal Government ministries, department and agencies on permanent employment.
Alkali explained that these acts violated the regulations guiding the N-Power volunteer programme and could amount to gross misconduct and corruption.
After investigations the ministry have cleared 9,066 of the 14,021 accounts of volunteers were cleared for final payment.
He said, “Based on this reality, the five months allowance arrears of these volunteers, totaling N150,000 each is currently being paid. They have started receiving credit alerts today.
“The allowances of the remaining 4,955 is withheld pending conclusion of further investigation. Where clear violations of the agreements are established, such violators will be subjected to appropriate sanctions as stipulated by the law.”
Alkali noted that contrary to some insinuations in the public domain, the process was a clear demonstration of the ministry’s resolve to address this unfortunate incidence in a transparent manner for accountability and to forestall its future occurrence.
