From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on non-remittance of contributions to the National Housing Fund ( NHF) and utilisation of the Fund from 2011 till date has summoned the acting governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN), Mr. Folashidun Shonubi to appear before it, over alleged non-remittance of deduction from workers’ salaries for NHF.
Also summoned to appear before the panel are the Accountant General of the Federation, Mrs Oluwatoyin Madein, as well as the four payment gateway engaged by the government for the National Housing Scheme (NHS), including Remita, e Tranzact, Nigeria Interbank Payment System (NIPS) and GIF.
The chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee , Dachung Bagos, who issued the summons,on Tuesday, said all those summoned are expected to provide details of the deductions and remittances made workers from 684 MDAs in respect of their national housing fund.
Bagos said the summon became necessary following the panel’s dis-satisfaction with the presentation made at the investigative hearing by the director of Intergrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), Emma James Deko.
He said “From what we are seeing, you don’t have the capacity to give us the information we need. We will therefore invite the Accountant general of the Federation and the CBN governorate furnish this committee with all information required in terms of deductions and remittances.
“We want to get to the root of this matter; why FMBN has not been able to address the issue of housing deficit, especially regarding Nigerian workers. But until we get the required information, we cannot hold the FMBN.
“Therefore, all the invited agencies are to appear on Thursday unfailingly. After that, we will take on the FMBN”.
Deko, had in his presentation, told the panel that IPPIS is not responsible for the payment of salaries and remittances, and as such could not immediately avail the lawmakers of the record of remittances.
According to him, ” I became the director IPPIS in February 2023, and when I came in, I was told and I also observed from records that, from December 2022 to the point I was joining, they’ve already been paying net. And I also went through the records and discovered that, there were instances like that in the past.”