By Zahra Muhammad
ASHENEWS reports that the Ministry for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation has explained the reason behind the suspension of the N-Power program.
The ministry in a statement issued on Sunday by Dr. Akindele Egbuwalo, National Programme Manager, N-Power said that the development has become necessary to give room for a detailed investigation into the operations of the N-Power in the last twelve months.
The statement said that the exercise would also enable the ministry to eliminate ghost workers while also establishing those who do not meet the criteria to benefit from the scheme.
Those listed in this category included those with existing jobs as well as those beneficiaries who do not report to their places of assignment.
According to him, an audit of the scheme which has since its inception enrolled 960,000 people has become imperative to also look into claims of those being owed for up to eight to nine months’ stipends.
“There is a need to audit the number of people in the program, those who have exited the program, those who are being owed, whether they reported working or not, and how funds have been utilized over this period of time.
“Recently, we discovered instances of program beneficiaries whose participation has lapsed since 2022 but have remained on and continue to expect payments from the government.
“In addition, some beneficiaries must honor their obligation to the program: They do not report to their places of primary assignments as required but still receive monthly payments. Some have other jobs and have left this bracket but are still benefiting from the payments, while those who truly worked are not paid.
“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.”
