The House of Representatives, suspecting financial foul play, has ordered the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), to account for over N12 billion difference recorded in its accrued budget actuals as at December 31st, 2022.
The Chairman of the House committee on Finance, James Falake,
gave the order for the probe when the management of ITF appeared before the Committee for the 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper interactive session in Abuja.
He expressed grave concern over the failure of the management of the Industrial Training Fund to embark on revenue generation from over 128,000 private and public quoted companies operating in Nigeria.
After scrutinizing various financial statements submitted to the Committee, Hon. Faleke queried the disparity with the audited report submitted by ITF, revealing a deficit of over N12 billion
Faleke observed that the difference was noticed in the accrued budget actuals as recorded in the Auditor General’s report for the same period.
He queried the operating expenditure of N39.8 billion in 2022 with a total revenue of N45.1 billion by the ITF, with only 2,691 staff nationwide.
He warned that if ITF failed to account for the difference after 24 hours, it would be forced to refund the entire N3 billion to government coffers.
The Director of Finance and Accounts in ITF, Mrs. Safiya Mansur, said that the fund sourced it’s revenue from the one per cent training contributions from public and private companies.
According to her, there are 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 previous house committee.
