‘No record for missing N24bn police pension fund’

Mayshak said upon her assumption of office,  she could not trace evidence of the existence of the N24 billion released from service wide vote meant for the Police Pension Fund back in 2010.
She told the house committee on public accounts that “we have no evidence. We have no record. It just looks bad on our part. We rather tell you the truth or make it up”.
Consequently, the committee summoned the finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Accountant General of the Federation, Jonah Otunla; Auditor General of the Federation, Mr Samuel Ukura, and the Director General of the Budget Office, Bright Okogwu, to appear before the committee for further explanations.
The committee called on the budget office boss to come along with a memo showing the request for the missing N24 billion. The lawmakers also requested the First Bank to show how much was deposited in the bank and how much was disbursed as well come up with the bank detail of the transaction.
Internal Auditor of the Pension office Adeyemo Julius Adebolu who was at the office when the N24 billion was received by the Pension office confirmed the amount was received for the 2010 payment of the pensioners.
He said when the money was released, he advised the office to lodge the money in a First Bank account but after the lodgment, he was kept in the dark on further disbursement.
Adebolu said a consulting firm was contracted to disburse the pension fund instead of the staff of the police pension office, noting that he had to come in when some of the pensioners after receiving their money complained of being short paid by the consulting firm.
Chairman of the committee, Rep Solomon Adeola Olamilekan (APC, Lagos) expressed shock at the revelation saying “I am taken aback, because what you are telling us is that, Service Wide Vote is a slush account. It is an account that is used to settle the boys. We will not allow this to go under the carpet.”