Payroll fraud is discovered by auditors in PAP
Payroll fraud was recently discovered in the amnesty office, according to the Strategic Communication Committee (SCC) of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP).
Speaking over the weekend in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, the SCC, led by its chairman and former agitator, Nature Dumale Kieghe, claimed that it had been discovered that a person was receiving stipends from 33 people fraudulently.
He added that 513 people were connected to multiple payments and insisted that the PAP’s new management is ready to reposition the program for peak performance.
According to Dumale, the Interim Administrator, Maj.-Gen. Barry Ndiomu (rtd), immediately began verifying all program beneficiaries as part of the ongoing investigation after the development.
Some program participants hadn’t yet received their monthly stipends, he said, adding that all affected and legitimate unpaid stipends would be paid after verifications due to the audit and Ndiomu’s efforts to clean up the payroll.
Dumale praised Ndiomu’s initiatives as proactive, noting that upon taking office, the amnesty chief renegotiated all existing contracts with vendors, saving N1.5 billion for PAP.
“Ndiomu started an internal and external audit of the PAP database,” he said. The auditors found a massive amount of fraud, particularly in the payment of stipends, where one person was receiving stipends intended for 33 people by fraudulent means.
The pro-active interim administrator has mandated that all delegates be immediately verified beginning next week. Delegates can rest easy knowing that anyone who is verified will get paid right away.
According to Dumale, Ndiomu had finalized plans to establish cooperatives that would be run by former activists under the supervision of consultants and grant management specialists.
He mentioned that Ndiomu had switched from the Train, Employ, and Mentor (TEM) model to the Train, Empower, and Exit (TEE) model five months after his appointment, allowing empowered beneficiaries to leave the program.
