Senate probes FG's N52bn job scheme

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Senate Public Account Committee is probing the Public Works Programme coordinated by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in which 774,000 Nigerians were recruited with mandate of 1000 people per local government.

Federal Government earmarked N52 billion for the project in 2020 in which 774,000 Nigerians were paid N20,000 each for three months.

Indeed, the Senate Public Account Committee, chaired by Senator Mathew Urhoghide , gave the National Directorate of Employment two weeks to submit comprehensive report of the beneficiaries of the scheme in 36 states of the country and Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The Committee is currently investigating expenditure of Service Wide Votes (SWV) discovered that NDE collected N26 billion for the scheme in 2020.

All seven Senators that were present at the committed meeting said none of the constituent members benefited from the scheme.

Senator Thompson Sekibo said nobody benefited from his Senatorial district, adding that all names submitted by the lawmakers who are representatives of the people were not considered.

Also, Senator Michael Nnachi said not a single person benefited from his Senatorial district, adding that the NDE should make available beneficiaries from his Senatorial district.

The Committee members therefore unanimously agreed that the NDE should submit names, phone numbers, accounts detail of the 1000 beneficiaries in each 774 local governments within one week.

But the representative of NDE who is a director in the agency, Isah Abdul, appealed to the Committee to give the agency three weeks to compile the list of beneficiaries.

However, the Committee declined and gave the agency two weeks to submit the list.