Explain why you paid N9bn into staff accounts, Reps probe NCDC

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is under probe by the House of Representatives’ Committee on Public Accounts for paying N9bn it received as special intervention fund from the Federal Government on COVID-19 into personal accounts of some of its staff.

The NCDC Director-General, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, had told the committee that the Federal Government, between March and December 2020, released to the NCDC N620m; March 2020 to March 2021, N5bn; and January 2021 to September 2021, N3.49bn.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the committee, Oluwole Oke, noted that some of the money were paid into the private accounts of some staff members.

According to a report by Punch, Oke cited two examples in 2020 where the sum of N3.95m was paid to one Kemisalo Odimayo for the establishment of an additional sample collection space and another sum of N792,000 paid to one Musa Sokodabo for the construction of isolation and treatment centres in some states.

Adetifa, however, referred the query to NCDC’s procurement officer, Dania Augustus, who said money was usually paid into the account of any staff member who raised a memo for any expenditure.

Augustus also said it was considered necessary to pay into the private accounts at the time due the urgency of the COVID-19 response.

“Musa is a desk officer; that is to say he raises memos on issues and treats files and all that. What usually happens is that whoever raises a memo for an activity, when payment is to be made, so that accounts can track record of payment, the initiator of that memo, his name is usually used,” he said.

Members of the committee, however, faulted the process as violating procurement laws.