Some members of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) who served under the 2015 Batch B session in Nsit local government area of Akwa-Ibom state have revealed how an education officer with the aid of an accountant reportedly diverted their allowances for December 2015 and refused to pay them.
The corps members who have since completed their mandatory one year service to the nation also called on the relevant authorities to investigate how the funds allocated for their upkeep by the state government developed wings.
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They Stressed that though the issue was somehow belated, it was pertinent that the state governor initiate an investigation to unearth how the cash was not paid to them yet recorded as paid.
According to the affected corps members, the immediate past chairman of the Local Education Committee (LEC) misappropriated the funds through the account officer mandated to pay the stipends.
Although the medium could not ascertain the amount of cash involved, it was learnt that it ran into hundreds of thousands of naira since it involved the non-payment of a mandatory N5000 to many of the youths.
It also gathered that letters of protest were written by the aggrieved ‘corpers’ and meetings were held between the government officials and the corps members but these did not yield efforts.
“They threatened to deal with us if we continued to agitate for the payment and since many of us wanted to just serve and leave in peace, we decided to let go of the matter so they would not influence the extension of our service year. But we believe that this money belongs to us and should be returned or at least an explanation given,’ an exasperated call member told the reporter in a phone interview.
Local Government reacts
When contacted for a reaction to the allegations, the Director of Finance of Nsit Ibom Local Government Council, Idongesit Jimmy, added another twist.
He said the corps members were being owed their entitlements for months because there was no money to pay them.
He noted that this did not amount to misappropriation of funds.
He said apart from ‘corpers’, the staff and ad-hoc staff of the local government council were being owed, including a paramount ruler who had not been paid his stipends.
“There is nothing like a finance officer misappropriating the N5,000 allowance meant for corp members. In a situation where we don’t have the money to pay them, that cannot amount to misappropriation of funds. Actually, there is no money to pay them apart from the December 2015 debt.
“The money is usually sent down by the state government, and at times we do stay for about eight to nine months without getting anything from them. So, it is not only ‘corpers’ that were affected. Many of the local government staff have not been paid for months too, including other casual/ad-hoc staff.
We also usually give stipends to the paramount ruler of the area and for a while now we have not been able to give him the stipend. The domestic staff of the paramount ruler are being paid why the council and we have not been able to also pay them for a while now as well. So can the paramount ruler accuse us of misappropriating funds because his stipends haven’t been paid?
“And we here in the local government we cannot afford to pay them without the state government augmenting things because the only revenue we generate at the local government council is from the issuance of certificate of origin. And this is very poor for a council like us. Whenever we get that little token, we use it to purchase the papers we use in the offices and other minor office equipment. We also use it to fuel the generator. So, all these allowances have been pending. And until we have the money to clear them, there is nothing we can do. But that doesn’t amount to misappropriation in any way. It is possible that because the coppers feel aggrieved that is why they changed the language to ‘misappropriation of funds’,” he said.
He said the situation is not only applicable to Nsit Ibom local government council alone, but to several other councils across the state as well.
He said there was no accountant in the department besides the director that has control over funds deployment.
He said there was no room for fraud ‘because the system is transparent and there are auditors monitoring things.’
According to him, as soon as the money is available, the corpers will be paid even if they have finished their service and left the state.
“They will be contacted and the money can be sent to their accounts. This is an obligation on our part under the law that we should augment their allowance, and since we owe them we will pay them. We have a schedule officer in the council that has the database and contacts of the corpers. He will contact them and pay through their accounts once the money is available,” he assured.
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