The Federal Government’s National Social Investment Office (NSIO) in collaboration with the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) is set to flag off a Toll-Free Whistle blower Hotline to checkmate corruption in School Feeding Programme and truancy in the N-Power scheme.
The programme was recently transferred from the office of the Vice President where it had been domiciled since its inception in 2016 to the newly-created Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.
The Muhammadu Buhari administration introduced the SIPs in 2016. The programmes include N-Power, National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), National Cash Transfer Project (NCTP), and Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP).
The launch would be carried out by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouk, according to a statement by NSIP Communications Manager, Tienabeso Bibiye.
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The launch of the Toll-Free Whistle blower Hotline 0800- Call-ICPC (0800 -22554272) will be on Friday at an open event scheduled to hold at the State House Auditorium, in Abuja.
The decision followed recent field reports that border on extortion of cash transfer to beneficiaries and cooks on the school feeding programme, as well as reported cases of truancy on the part of Some N-Power beneficiaries.
Bibiye said these have compelled the need for close monitoring of the various components of the SIPs to achieve the intended objectives.
The NSIP Communications Manager, said the event which aims to identify, curb and address corrupt tendencies in the Programme, is part of government’s commitment to unwavering quest to ensure the Social Protection Programme is executed in an open, accountable and transparent manner and in line with the Zero Tolerance For Corruption Stance of the administration.
Bibiye also explained that the latest collaborative effort between the NSIO and ICPC is to further tighten all loose ends, to effectively checkmate acts that tend to undermine the strident efforts of the Federal Government to alleviate poverty in the country.
He explained that the event is to also raise awareness to enable government garner public support in the fight against the menace of extortion, fraud and intimidation in the delivery and scaling up of the four projects under NSIP at the field level among others.
It is also aimed at stimulating thinking and synergy around determining practical solutions and innovative approaches towards resolving the challenges NSIP beneficiaries (and their target audience) face, thereby improving the implementation of NSIP for the benefits of the general populace and more specifically, for the benefits of the poor and vulnerable.
The event, he added is expected to produce positive outcomes that would further strengthen the execution of the SIPs for the benefit of Nigerians, would be open to Civil Society Organisations, Anti-Corruption Agencies, SIP monitors and the media.
President Muhammadu Buhari had in a Nationwide Broadcast to mark Nigeria’s 59th Independence Anniversary restated his Administration’s commitment to consolidating on the huge gains of the National Social Investment Programmes NSIPs, which he said have empowered over 12 million poor and vulnerable Nigerians in the last three years.
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The statement further explained that the NSIO which coordinates the components of the Social Investment Programme SIP namely National Home Grown School Feeding Programme NHGSFP, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme GEEP, N-POWER and the National Cash Transfer Programme NCTP, has worked in accordance with the vision of the administration by instituting processes and procedures that aim at insulating the NSIP from corrupt practices.
This, it does through deliberate deployment of technology in identification, screening and payments to beneficiaries, strict adherence to due process in the award of contracts as well as compliance to bureaucratic processes to make the NSIP stand out as one of the most transparently executed Government Programs in Nigeria’s history, the statement said.
Further, he said the NSIO has also been collaborating with security and anti-graft Agencies Such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Department of State Service (DSS) for a robust monitoring approach, which partnership has led to several arrests and prosecution of defaulters.
Meanwhile, the budget of SIPs for the 2020 budget by massive 94 percent.
While the programme was allocated N500 billion in each of the previous three budget cycles, it was allocated only N30 billion in the 2020 budget proposal President Buhari presented to the National Assembly last week Tuesday.
The coordinator of the NSIP, Maryam Uwais, had disclosed recently that they received N470.825 billion in the three years out of the N1.5 trillion budgeted for the poverty alleviation initiative in the past three years.