Pension: Senate panel uncovers N26bn fraud

The Senate panel investigating the alleged mismanagement of pension funds yesterday uncovered over N26bn fresh fraud in the police pension funds.Speaking during an interactive session with bank executives, the chairman of the Senate Joint Committee on Public Service, Establishment and State and Local Government Administration, Senator Aloysius Etok (PDP, Akwa Ibom North-west) said the KPMG report showed that those funds were transferred into banks without the authorisation of the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.A member of the committee, Senator Kabiru Gaya (ANPP, Kano) noted that in March 2011, N2bn was illegally transferred to the old Intercontinental Bank (now Access Bank). Senator Gaya also revealed that in April 2011, N3bn police pension fund was transferred from Union Bank to GTB by a staff member of the Police Pension Office, adding that the account was closed in June without the authorisation of the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF).'The Pension Reform Taskforce told us during the public hearing that it recovered N28bn from the Police Pension Office and lodged same in some undisclosed banks. So, we need to know if your bank was among them', Gaya said.The committe also queried why one Oludare Ebenezer Adedokun shared the same GTB account with the immediate past Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Professor Oladapo Afolabi.Responding, GTB Managing Director Mr. Segun Agbaje confirmed the transfer of the funds, saying that ' Maina, on June 30, asked us to close the account and transfer it to another bank. N2bn was on August 11, 2011 transferred to a police pension account in Ecobank, while the balance with us now is N1.1 bn'.The committee further revealed that a total of N57m police pension fund was also found to have been lodged in First Bank by civil servants between last June and September. The committee added that another N10bn was found in First Bank, N8bn in Fidelity Bank, N3bn each in UBA and Ecobank.
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