Alleged Multi Bn.Naira Fraud: ICPC May Investigate PENCOM Acting DG, Aisha Dahir-Umar

By Akinwale Kasali

The Acting Director General of Nigeria Pension Commission, PENCOM, Aisha Dahir-Umar is in trouble. If the allegations against her are anything to go by.

Anti-graft agency, the Independent Corrupt Practices And Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, is said to be set to investigate Dahir-Umar for alleged misappropriation of funds, flagrant violation of procurement process and abuse of office.

The probe of the Acting DG  follows recent findings by the joint Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Pensions, which revealed alleged  high level of financial recklessness in the commission she heads.

At the Committees meeting of the Upper and Lower Cadres of the National Assembly, it was alleged that PENCOM fraudulently spent N9 billion on salaries of only 386 staff, and another N12.3 billion (of the Internally generated revenue of the commission) without the approval of the National Assembly.

The committee’s, also, noted that by the PENCOM DG’s summation, the N9 billion salaries are estimated at an average of N2 million monthly per staff.

Senator Ibrahim Shekarau and Hon. Ibrahim Rurum,  the Committee Chairs of  PENCOM at the Senate and the House respectively, raised concerns over delays and non-payment of pension entitlements to retirees by the management of PenCom.

The lawmakers said the claim by the DG of PenCom, that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation approved the proposal on the utilisation of the revenue accrued to the Commission was baseless, stressing that it was contrary to Section 21 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007, and Section 80(4) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

On the delays/non-payment of pension entitlements to retirees, the Committees disclosed that the number of retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme as at 30th September, 2019, were 298,614; while the Pension Industry membership had grown to 8.85 million people.

But “thousands of retirees especially primary school teachers in many states of the Federation who retired in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 have not been able to access their contributions in the Retirement Savings Account, due to unknown reasons”.

The Magazine gathered that another issue raised by the Committees is the alleged illegal appointment of Dahir-Umar as the Commission’s acting Director-General. The lawmakers noted that Dahir-Umar has been in acting capacity for four years, without any backing from either  PENCOM or any other law even as the Federal Government has refused to constitute a Board for the pensions commission, in contravention of section 19 of the Pension Reform Act, 2014.

The act states in Section 19 (1), that “there is established a governing board for the commission (in this Act referred to as the Board). “The Board shall consist of a part-time chairman who shall be a fit and proper person with adequate cognate experience in pensions matters, the Director-General of the commission, four full-time Commissioners of the Commission, a representative of each of the following agencies and institutions, Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Federal Ministry of Finance, Nigerian Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, Nigerian Union of Pensioners, Nigerian Employers Consultative Association, Central Bank of Nigeria, Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigeria Stock Exchange and National Insurance Commission”.

Recall, that the Committees had rejected the Commission’s proposed 2020 budget following these anomalies.

The anti-graft agency is set to invite Dahir-Umar and other Directors of PENCOM immediately the COVID-19 lockdown is lifted by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.