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EFCC Joint Task Force Ends N 151 billion Pension Fraud

By on January 20, 2012

A joint task force of forensic experts from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Pensions Reform Task Force has revealed a N 151 billion fraud ongoing in pension offices across the country.

The Chairman of the Pension Reform Taskforce Committee, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina disclosed this at a courtesy visit to the Acting Chairman, EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde.

According to Maina, over N 39 billion worth of properties bought with the proceeds of the graft have been recovered. Also several bank accounts with a combined value of N 180 million were revealed and impounded.

Majority of the graft was traced to corrupt officials in the Pension unit of the Office of the Head of Service, in a testament to the rot of corruption that is ever pervasive in the system.

Maina lambasted the fraud in the pension scheme, stating pensioners were suffering not because of lack of funds but“due to large scale corruption through diversion and mismanagement of pension fund, manipulation and falsification of data, non-improvement in the pension administrative structure, and bureaucracy with poor, unreliable and inefficient accounting system”.

The EFCC chairman has vowed to prosecute the 42 corrupt government officials found to be members of the fraud cartel. “We hope the prosecution will serve as deterrence to those who may wish to get into this callous and inhuman venture,” said Lamorde.
He also said efforts were ongoing to bring more perpetrators to justice.

Maina, also disclosed that the implementation of the biometric system in the Pension scheme had led to the detection of over 71, 000 fake pensioners.