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The House of Representatives on Thursday considered the report of the protracted face-off between management and staff of National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) over the indiscriminate approval of waiver worth $900,000.
The workers under that aegis of Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Service Employees (AUCPTRE) during the investigative hearing also raised issues over the sum of $70,000 approved by NAICOM management for some overseas treatment of the Deputy Commissioner.
These were contained in the report of the joint committees on Insurance and Actuarial Matters, Finance and Labour and Employment, signed by Olufemi Fakeye (APC-Osun), Babangida Ibrahim, Chairman. House Committee on Finance and Ezenwa Onyewuchi, chairman, House Committee on Labour and Productivity which was considerednand adopted by the House at plenary.
According to the 12-page report, the Commission in “contravention of section 55 of the Insurance Act 2003, is losing considerable revenue as a result of its management’s sent to liberally grant huge waivers to some insurance companies who ran foul of extant regulations and must be financially sanctioned by the Commission in accordance with some specified guidelines and formulae.
“The Union substantiated its observations int his regard by mentioning, specifically for illustration, two recent waiver cases involving Mansard Insurance (in favour of which $990,000 was reportedly waived!) and Anchor Insurance, in favour of a a deep reduction of the amount due to NAICOM as penalty, was granted.
“That management unduly authorised some foreign exchange expenses in the amount of $70,000 for some overseas treatment in the US of the Deputy Commissioner.”
The Committee however observed that the Union could not substantiate allegations bothering on N54 billion allegedly looted from the liquidation of Nigerian Airways in which the CFI was indicted by a judicial panel of inquiry headed by Justice Obiora Nwazota in May 2002.
Also, the Union failed to present documents relating to the $13 million allegedly transfered to an entity known as Alexander Services Limited, from the liquidation of NICON Insurance PLC, where the CFI was the Managing Director before its privatisation, stressing that “they did most of the other, foregoing complaints and grievances.”
The workers during the investigative hearing further noted that the “day to day administration and governance inside NAICOM has collapsed, as only the decisions of a so-called Executive Committee comprising the Commissioner for Insurance (CFI) and his deputy Commissioner (D/CFI) tend to hold, to the detriment of other management staff.”
They further alleged that “NAICOM management failed to implement 2016 capital budget for the Commission, with the result that the current lack of critical needs such as vehicles, furniture and computers, etc., now cripple the day to day operation of the Commission.
“That contrary to the requirements of section 31(1a) of the NAICOM Act, which stipulates that all critical particpant-organisations in the insurance industry, including companies engaged in insurance, reinsurance, brokers and loss adjuster businesses, be inspected at least once every two years by the Commission, NAICOM appeared to be failing in discharging this responsibility.”
According to the report, NAICOM management during the interface with the joint Committee, forwarded an “invitation it received from the Independent Corruption Practices and other related offences commission (ICPC), in respect of some ‘alleged violation’ of the corrupt practices and other related offences Act 2000.
“The petition had been submitted to ICPC against NAICOM by AUCPTRE, obviously in its relentless effort to seem redress of its case with the management of NAICOM.
“The joint Committee learned, just in the course of the current investigation, that AUCPTRE had earlier on submitted a written petition to President Muhammadu Buhari directly, in its effort to sell favourable redress.
“Sequel to the development in which the Union has resorted to litigation and has also petitioned the ICPC, as well as President Muhammadu Buhari, in seeking a favourable pronouncement over the same matter now being investigated by the joint Committee, members of the joint Committee asked the Union’s representatives what good the Union believed could, at this point, be served by whatever the outcome of the joint Committee’s deliberations would be.
“The leader of the local chapter of the Union in his response, absolved its chapter from the resort to litigation, explaining that it wastheir national chapter that went to Court and not their own NAICOM chapter, which had all along been involved in the ongoing investigation by the Joint Committee of the House.
To this end, the joint Committee resolved that to the extent that the key issue now before the Industrial Court is the determination of whether or not the senior members of NAICOM, who for now are members of the local chapter of AUCPTRE, were legally authorised to voluntarily elect to join AUCPTRE in the first place, hence conceded that the Industrial Court should be allowed to rule on the matter.
The Committee also urged the Minister of Finance to take urge to steps to advise the Executive to institute a Board of Directors for NAICOM, in accordance with the advice of the Speaker of the House, Rt. Honourable Yakubu Dogara, given sincthe middle of 2016.
“Committee members noted that the continued lack of a Board for the Commission is in contravention of section 2(1) of the NAICOM Act of 1997, which states: ‘thwre is hereby established for the Commission, a Governing Board which shall be responsible for managing and supritending the affairs of the Commission.
“That the House of Representatives await the outcome of the litigation in Suit No. NICN/ABJ/40/2017 at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria to a proper determination of whether the membership of the local chapter of AUCPTRE inside NAICOM should not be limited to junior staff only, as opined by the Ministry of Labour and Employment,” the report stated.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA
