Finance Ministry confirms suspension of PTAD boss

The Federal Ministry of Finance on Friday confirmed the indefinite suspension of the Executive Secretary/Director General of The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), Mrs. Nellie Mayshak and three other senior staff of the directorate.

A statement from the Ministry, signed by Festus Akanbi, the Senior Assistant, Media, to the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, disclosed that “Mayshak was placed on suspension by the Honourable Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun and a director from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation has been appointed as acting Executive Secretary/Director General.”

The suspension, he said “is a normal civil service procedure to pave way for an unimpeded investigation into the activities of the directorate under the watch of Mrs Mayshak.”

The Ministry assured pensioners that the suspension will not affect pension payment and services, and promised “to make public, the findings of the investigative panel on the issues leading to the suspension.”

Also, the Federal Ministry of Finance has disclosed that it will soon appoint financial analysts to reconcile the accounts of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).

Festus Akanbi, in another statement, revealed that the decision was taken “to strengthen and increase the capacity of the post-mortem sub-Committee of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).”

This, he explained, was sequel to the approval at the last FAAC meeting that three independent and experienced financial analysts, who will work on the process of reconciliation, be appointed.

Akanbi explained that the Post-Mortem Sub-Committee is to enhance accountability, improve reconciliations and ensure transparent process in respect of all the revenues accruable to the Federation Account.

The sub-committee is saddled with the responsibility of examining the books of accounts of all revenue agencies including the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Customs Service, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and Ministry of Mines and Steel. It is expected to report deficiencies observed to the Federation Account Committee and recommend the way forward.

Akanbi noted that “though the unreconciled differences are no longer there, with the increased oversight of the Federal Ministry of Finance and the transparency of the NNPC, it will be easy for the sub-committee to achieve better result. This is because the committee, which reports to the Federation Account on a monthly basis, was originally set up to encourage revenue reconciliation and block leakages through the use of technology.”

The NNPC had rejected the findings of the audit report submitted recently to the National Assembly by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation, stating that the audit query it raised over the non-remittance of N3.235 trillion to the Federation Account was erroneous. The corporation had insisted that its balance to the federation account is N326 billion.

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