Federal government has said the preliminary findings of its audit of N-Power has shown that some consultants are holding on to beneficiaries’ funds disbursed to them long ago even when their contract ended in March 2023 without any renewal.
LEADERSHIP reports that minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Beta Edu, had announced the indefinite suspension of the N-Power programme. She said the decision was caused by some irregularities within the scheme.
Reacting to the development, national programme manager, N-Power, Dr Akindele Egbuwalo, condemned the practice, saying it will not tolerate it going forward.
The statement said work is ongoing to identify those involved, understand why the payments didn’t get to the final beneficiaries, and recall the funds to pay those owed.
It also appealed to Nigerians to understand the rationale behind the temporary suspension and investigation of the programme as work to restore the nation’s confidence in the programme and for the new N-Power to serve Nigerians better.
“Things have to be properly done for us to move forward,” it stated.
It said the restructuring and transformation will also birth an expanded programme to reach beneficiaries aged 18-40 (the previous age limit was 35).
The statement reads in part: “We are targeting five million beneficiaries in five years at a pace of one million per year under the graduate and non-graduate stream.
“In addition, the restructuring will accommodate some new programmes, in education, health, works, agriculture, technology, fashion, entertainment, and other relevant areas of skills acquisition and employability.
“To earn the confidence of Nigerians in the expanded programme, transparency and accountability will be the benchmark. It shall no longer be business as usual as we make concerted efforts to put the nation on the right footing, ensuring that no one directly or indirectly unleashes suffering on Nigerians.
“We assure all beneficiaries with genuine claims that we will resolve their cases once we complete the verification exercise and honour all valid outstanding obligations. Nobody will be owed.”
The statement stressed that it is imperative to inform Nigerians, particularly beneficiaries of the N-Power programme across the country, of the temporary suspension of the programme.
It said the action has become necessary to give room for a detailed investigation into the operations of the N-Power in the last 12 months.
It noted that the total number of persons enrolled on N-Power since its inception to date is 960,000 people. Most of them have exited from NPower 1.0 and NPower 2.0.
“There is a need to audit the number of people in the programme, those who have exited the programme, those who are being owed, whether they reported to work or not and how funds have been utilised over this period of time.
“Recently, we discovered instances of programme beneficiaries whose participation has lapsed since 2022 but have remained on and continue to expect payments from the government. In addition, some beneficiaries must honour their obligation to the programme: They do not report to their places of primary assignments as required but still receive monthly payments.
“These instances have made the need for a thorough audit imperative, as we also look into claims of those being owed for up to eight to nine months’ stipends to ascertain the veracity of their claims. The graduates and non-graduate volunteers Batch C1 and C2 are in this category. We want to establish the exact number of people owed and the total amounts, thereby eliminating ghost beneficiaries.
“Preliminary findings of our audit have shown that some consultants are holding on to beneficiaries’ funds disbursed to them long ago even when their contract ended in March 2023 without any renewal. We condemn this practice and will not tolerate it going forward. Work is ongoing to identify those involved, understand why the payments didn’t get to the final beneficiaries, and recall the funds to pay those owed,” the statement said.
