The House of Reps Ad-hoc committee investigating non-remittance to the National Housing Fund, NHF, and utilisation of funds has ordered the Accountant-General of the Federation, AGF, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Madein to appear before it on September 7 or face an arrest warrant.
The committee said this when the Director, of Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) appeared before it over non-remittance to NHF, as it resumed sitting in Abuja on Thursday.
The committee had invited IPPIS, a department in the Office of AGF to explain why it had not remitted to NHF.
Disturbed by the information given by the IPPIS Director, the committee said “the AGF must appear in person.”
A letter brought by the Director of IPPIS to explain why the AGF could not appear on Thursday did not assuage the feelings of the committee, thereby, forcing the committee to re-invite her.
The committee said the IPPIS Director could not answer most of the questions posed to him, explaining that he should come with the AGF and must be ready to give further explanations on Sept 7.
The Chairman of the committee, Dachung Bagos said, “We cannot take the same man that could not give us the information we need from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
“The Speaker requested for fair hearing from us and we wouldn’t want to be seen as witch-hunting anyone. We would give the fair hearing for the AGF to appear another day.”
The IPPIS claimed it had challenges in remitting to NHF.
The committee also asked Remital, a private organisation that remits the funds, to also reappear on Sept 7 because IPPIS was not ready to answer questions from the committee.
The chairman of the committee, though commended Remital for appearing before it with requisite documents, he blamed IPPIS for not ready with necessary documents to quiz the organisation.
Also appearing at the investigative hearing are the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), United Bank for Africa (UBA), Zenith Bank, Sterling Bank, Heritage Bank.
Bagos said there was a need to know the investment of the banking sector according to the NHF Act that set up the NHF.
In his presentation, Mr. Eke Ogba, the General Manager of UBA, said it had remitted about N2.5 billion from January 2011 to July 2023 to NHF.
He said;“This is a huge sum. We have given the summary monthly. We have also given the summary of what is deducted monthly from each worker.”
Ogba said they don’t know about the investment, stressing that they only deduct and remit, promising to get the details of the investment.
Lateefah Ibrahim
