The Senate has queried the payment of premium for the insurance of allegedly grounded aircrafts owned by the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS).
Accordingly, the upper legislative house has launched comprehensive investigation on the matter.
The Senate Committee on Public Accounts that is investigating the matter said the two aircrafts shouldn’t have been insured because they were grounded.
It has therefore given the NIS, a week to respond to the query and prove that no misdeed was committed.
The committee’s investigation arose from the 2016- 2018 reports of Auditor General’s of the Federation.
According to the audit report, the cost of one of the premiums paid by the NIS in 2016 was N13.4 million, while the ones for 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 were not shown to the panel.
Expressing dissatisfaction with the payment of millions of naira as premium for grounded aircrafts, Chairman of the committee, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, lamented that so much money could be spent on insurance for unserviceable aircrafts.
The audit query which was sent to the Senate’s Public Accounts Committee reads: “At the Nigeria Immigration Service, Headquarters, Abuja, the following observations were made: Amounts totaling N13,419,800.00 were paid through two payment vouchers dated February and March, 2016 to an insurance broker for the renewal of premium of Nigeria Immigration Service Aviation fleet policy.
“ The following information were not made available: Original copy of insurance policy on aviation fleet, Evidence of renewal of the aviation fleet policy in year 2014/2015, Evidence of the acknowledgement of the receipt of payment by the insurance broker, Evidence that the brokers remitted the sum of N13,419,800.00 to the insurance company, Renewal endorsement for year 2014/2015 and 2015/2016, Appropriation to pay for the renewal of the policy, Computation analysis on the premium renewal, Location of the aircrafts and Evidence that the aircrafts were airworthy.
“The Comptroller-General should produce the mentioned documents, otherwise recover the sum of N13,419,800 from the insurance brokers and furnish evidence of recovery for verification.”
