President Bola Tinubu has set up a special presidential panel to immediately undertake a comprehensive review and audit of existing financial frameworks and policy guidelines of the social investment programmes.
It is headed by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Wale Edun as chairman.
According to a statement issued on Saturday by Ajuri Ngelale, Special Adviser to the President (Media & Publicity), the panel is expected to implement a total re-engineering of the financial architecture of the programmes with detailed modifications to procedures guiding the programmes’ implementation moving forward.
The establishment of the panel followed the six-week suspension of the four programmes under the National Social Investment Programmes Agency (NSIPA).
The panel approved by President Tinubu also comprises of ministers representing strategic sectors and according to the statement, will ensure a multi-disciplinary approach to the reform effort.
The members are the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare,
Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Minister of Information and National Orientation, Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, and Minister of State for Youth.
“President Tinubu anticipates that this Special Presidential Panel will validate the confidence reposed in it by winning back all lost public confidence in these vital programmes over the years by ushering in a new era of operation based on open and accountable governance frameworks that will prove impervious to abuse and incompetence for the exclusive benefit of disadvantaged households across our nation,” the statement said.
The president had on Friday suspended, for six weeks in the first instance, the four programmes under the NSIPA which is already being investigated for cases of alleged fraud.
The programmes are N- Power Programme, Conditional Cash Transfer Programme, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme and Home Grown School Feeding Programme.
A statement announcing the suspension informed that Tinubu had also raised significant concerns regarding operational lapses and improprieties surrounding payments to the Programmes beneficiaries.
“During the period of this suspension, all NSIPA-related activities, including but not limited to all distributions, events, payments, collaborations and registrations are now frozen,” the statement said.
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