Almost five months after the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) directed Mike Okiro, chairman, Police Service Commission (PSC) and former Inspector General of Police, to refund to the First City Monument Bank of the ICPC recovery account the sum of N133 million, the Commission is yet to confirm receipt of the refund.
The ICPC had on August 6, 2015, in its report, asked that the sum of N133 million of the N350 million Okiro received for staff training and election monitoring be remitted into the Commission’s recovery account, after investigations over corrupt allegations levelled against him by one Solomon Kaase, a staff of the PSC, by which he petitioned the ICPC over alleged moves by Okiro to swindle the PSC to the tune of N275 million.
He was alleged to have collected N350 million to train 900 PSC staff, whereas the staff strength of the body was 391, the money was also said to have been meant to cover physical monitoring of police personnel during the last general election.
But the ICPC in its investigation said it discovered that the Okiro-led Commission held training of staff only in Abuja, whereas the PSC was paid for trainings in Abuja, Lagos and Kaduna.
Even though the ICPC was quick to add that there was no act of criminal infraction against Okiro as all the outlined issues “are administrative in nature and within the ambits of career public servants handling,” the PSC was also found to have paid daily travelling allowances to all staff, including those based in Abuja, who participated in the training programme held within the Federal Capital Territory.
“Air tickets were paid to management staff and others who monitored elections within Abuja and its environs; even at locations were airports do not exist such as Lokoja and Minna.
“PSC chairman collected money for two conferences that ran simultaneously in Dublin and Orlando, Florida, expending ticket fare for the Dublin trip only. However, he had written to the Presidency to expend the ticket fare for Abuja-Orlando-Abuja on another trip coming up in October, 2015,” the ICPC said.
But five months after the recommendations had been made and further directives put in place, officials of the ICPC, as of the time of filing this report, cannot confirm if the overspent funds had been remitted into the recovery account of the anti-graft agency.
Reliable sources within the ICPC, however, said the inability to confirm the payments or non-payments could not be unconnected to the lackadaisical attitude of some of its staff to work.
A source, who pleaded anonymity, was of the opinion that “the matter has been just too long for the Commission not be able to confirm the payment or non-payment of the funds. This is one of the things we are complaining about of some staff. At least, as at now, if the money has been remitted or not, the Commission should know as of this moment.”
It would be recalled that the ICPC also directed the PSC staff that were paid “two-way return tickets and airport taxi fares to locations within the FCT” and surrounding states during the monitoring exercise to refund N11.75 million.
