By Augustine Aminu
The House of Representatives (HOP) Committee on Finance on Monday gave a 24 hour ultimatum to the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) to account for the sum of over three (3) billion naira difference recorded in their accrued budget actuals as at December 31st, noticed in the Auditor General’s report.
The equally warned that if ITF failed to account for the difference after 24 hours, it will be forced to refund the entire 3 billion naira to government coffers.
The Chairman of the Committee, Rep James Faleke gave the ultimatum when the Management of ITF appeared before the Committee for the 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) interactive session.
Faleke queried the operating expenditure of 39.8 billion naira in 2022 with a total revenue of 45.1 billion naira by the ITF, with only 2,691 staff nationwide.
Answering questions from the Committee members, Safiya Mansur, the Director Finance and Accounts of ITF informed that they sourced it’s revenue from the one percent training contributions from public and private companies.
According to her, there are about 128,000 registered companies contributing employers to the ITF, out of which only 57,000 are up to date in their contribution.
To ensure compliance, she said, the ITF intensified monitoring of the defaulting companies, where some resorted to litigation but was later resolved due to the intervention of the 9th National Assembly House Committee.
Other agencies that appeared before the Committee but did not come with requested documents by the Committees include Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority.
The Committee gave them till Wednesday to appear back with the excuse documents.