It has been reported that the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts launched an investigation on the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) over the distribution of Federal Government funds on COVID-19 into personal accounts of some members of its staff.
Director-General of the NCDC, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, told the committee that the Federal Government gave the NCDC N620m between March and December 2020, N5bn from March 2020 to March 2021, and N3.49bn for January 2021 to September 2021.
Committee chairman Oluwole Oke, however, reported that there were irregularities in the disbursement of the funds, most notably some of the money being paid into some staff members’ private accounts.
Mr Oke claimed that a sum of N3.95m was transferred to Kemisalo Odimayo and another sum of N792,000 was paid to Musa Sokodabo. NCDC, however, said that the money was paid into the accounts of staff members for reimbursement.
For example, Mr Odimanyo was given the money because he and his team had established an additional sample collection space based on the instruction of NCDC and MR Sokobado and his team constructed isolation and treatment centres in some states.
“Musa is a desk officer; that is to say he raises memos on issues and treats files and all that,” said NCDC procurement officer Dania Augustus. “What usually happens is that whoever raises a memo for an activity, when payment is to be made, so that accounts can track record of payment, the initiator of that memo, his name is usually used.”
