President Bola Tinubu has set up a special panel on social investment programmes, presidential spokesman Ajuri Ngelale said on Saturday.
The move is a sequel to Tinubu’s suspension, for six weeks, of the four programmes under the National Social Investment Programmes Agency (NSIPA) and the panel will be led by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance Wale Edun.
“This Special Presidential Panel is tasked with immediately undertaking a comprehensive review and audit of existing financial frameworks and policy guidelines of the social investment programmes with a view to implementing a total re-engineering of the financial architecture of the programmes with detailed modification to procedures guiding the programmes’ implementation moving forward,” Ajuri said in a Saturday statement.
The panel also comprises “ministers representing strategic sectors and will ensure a multi-disciplinary approach to the reform effort,” according to Ajuri.
Below is a list of the members of the panel:
(1) Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance – Chairman
(2) Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare – Member
(3) Honourable Minister of Budget and Economic Planning – Member
(4) Honourable Minister of Information and National Orientation – Member
(5) Honourable Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy – Member
(6) Honourable Minister of State for Youth – Member
“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 spokesman’s statement added.
The audit is in response to the can of worms opened following allegations of mind-boggling fraud involving Betta Edu, the suspended minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation; her predecessor, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, as well as the former head of the NSIPA, Halima Shehu who are being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
