We’re investigating alleged fraud in YouWin- Finance Ministry

The Ministry of Finance has said it is still investigating whether or not there was corruption in the implementation of YouWin programme. The Ministry stated this on Friday in reaction to a media report that
huge cases of fraud were uncovered by a team of Investigators in the economic empowerment programme launched by the previous administration of Goodluck Jonathan.

In a press statement signed by the Director of Information, Mr Salisu Danbatta, it said until investigation was concluded, it won’t establish or determineif any case of fraud was committed.

It pointed out that the current administration inherited YouWin as an ongoing programme, which had made legally binding commitments of grants to 1, 500 entrepreneurs. “The administration decided that those commitments should be honoured.

“It was in that regard that a batch of awardees under YouWin 3 was submitted to the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, for cash disbursement totaling N611, 821, 910 million,” it said.

According to the statement, “Allegations were received from an anonymous whistleblower, which provided documentary evidence of irregularities in 10 cases out of the batch. The Minister immediately directed that an internal investigation be conducted to determine the veracity of the alleged fraud and report the findings to her for necessary action.

“The substance of the allegations was that an awardee was the child of a former Director in the Ministry and there were a number of cases where married couples each benefitted. This raised concerns about the integrity
of the original selection process, which took place in 2014,” it pointed out.

The ministry added that, its “position is that investigations are ongoing under the Presidential Initiative on Continues Audit (PICA) who will review each suspected case to determine whether any irregularity occurred. In the interim, disbursements of this batch have been suspended.”