Reps summon federal Accountant General as bank boss indicts IPPIS over billions of Naira
By Tom Okpe
House of Representatives Adhoc Committee investigating non-remittance of funds to the National Housing Fund, (NHF) and non-utilization of the funds has summoned the Accountant General of the Federation (AGoF) to appear before it unfailingly at its next sitting.
The Accountant General is to explain why monies deducted from workers’ salaries were not remitted to the fund.
He is also to explain why there are disparities in deductions from workers in various agencies of government and why only N20 billion has been remitted to the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) since 2011.
Chairman of the committee, Rep Bagos Musa (PDP, Plateau) issued the order at the committee’s sitting yesterday.
He observed that from documents presented to it by the Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System (IPPIS), N23, 000 was deducted from the University of Calabar for NHF for one month, while Federal Polytechnic, Birnin Kebbi contributed N9, 000.
A representative of the Director of IPPIS, Ekwem Dem, told the committee that while deductions from salaries of workers was automatic, remittances were not automated.
He, however, could not tell the committee how much has been deducted as housing fund from workers since 2011, saying even though they have the information, he needs to query the system before responding to the question.
The committee then asked the Accountant General to furnish it with information on what has been deducted from workers so far, when such money was deducted and why the money was not remitted.
A member of the Committee, Rep. Timehin Adelegbe observed that “if the deduction is automated, the remittances should also be automated.”
The Committee also asked the Accountant General to remit all deductions on the housing fund to the FMBN with immediate effect and receipts presented.
Managing Director of FMBN, Madu Hamman appealed to the Committee to amend the Act establishing the bank and the NHF to give more effect to the operation of the NHF.
Hamman said the bank collected about N591. 523 billion as remittances from both the formal and informal sectors of the Nigerian economy since 2011 to date of which N238. 557 billion was collected from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
He said the bank also had outstanding payment of about N26. 573 billion with the office of the AGoF.
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Giving a breakdown of the outstanding payment, he said the AGoF erroneously deducted about N11. 6 billion from remittances of workers to the bank between October and December 2022.
“We explained that the money was remittances of workers’ contributions to the NHF before the deduction was stopped through Treasury Single Account.,” he explained.
Hamman added that between January 2022 and December 2022, the IPPIS failed to remit about N11. 587 billion deducted from workers’ salaries and another N3. 356 billion between April and July 2021.
He disclosed that contributors to the NHF are eligible for full refund of their contributions over the years with accrued interest of two per cent upon retirement on attaining the age of 60 or inability to continue contributions due to incapacitation or death.
He said so far, the bank has refunded N66. 678 billion to 444,637 persons, adding that of the N591.523 billion collected for NHF within the period, about N347. 570 billion was invested in various projects financed by the bank.
The projects, he said include Cooperative Housing Development Loan (N44.019 billion), NHF mortgage loan (N139.095 billion), Ministerial Pilot Housing Scheme (N38.037 billion), TUC/NLC/NECA housing scheme (31.659 billion), individual construction loan (N269.044 million), Home Renovation Loan (N92.468 billion) and Rent to Own (N2.021 billion).
