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June 8, 2024
We didn’t reject 40% deduction of employers’ contributions by Finance Ministry — NSITF
ABUJA – The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has dismissed a petition calling for a probe into alleged non-remittance of tax deductions and other financial improprieties.
The petition, filed by a group known as the Transparency and Accountability Group (TAG), alleged that the NSITF had failed to remit tax deductions and had engaged in other financial misconduct.
However, in a statement issued on Friday and signed by Nwachukwu Godson, General Manager, Corporate Affairs, the NSITF described the allegations as ‘baseless’ and ‘a rehash of old issues’.
The statement described the petition as ‘another attempt by extortionists and detractors to discredit the current management of the Fund’. The NSITF also stated that it had addressed similar allegations in the past and that there was no substance to the new petition.
The statement read in part, “We are not therefore surprised at this rehash of gratuitous allegations, a trifle perfunctory, with weak attempts at substantiation. We are not cowed by this unrewarding whining from a poorly articled traders of hurt and malice since our books are open and there is nothing really to hide. Forthwith, we state that the employment of the Managing Director/Chief Executive of the NSITF, first as General Manager was properly guided by sections 9(3) and (4) of the NSITF Act for employment, terms and conditions of service of staff and by Section 31(c) of the Employees Compensation Act (ECA) and not the Public Service Rule as ignorantly bandied by TAG.
“The bottom-line is that the allegations by TAG are a motely rehash of issues which we have been properly addressed before now and some of which have been undergoing investigations by the ICPC and EFCC and so far, no wrong doing established on the part of the Managing Director or members of her EXCO. In view of the above therefore, we easily dismiss the allegations by the Transparency and Accountability Group as ‘a tale full of sound and fury, signifying nothing’ as found in Macbeth by William Shakespeare.”
