The Federal Government through the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development has commenced the final payment of the arrears on the outstanding allowances of 9,066 N Power volunteers.

The Ministry made this known on Friday through a statement signed by the Permanent Secretary, Bashir Alkali.

The accounts of 14,021 volunteers from batches A and B of the programme, were in March flagged by the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System.

The ministry said that after conducting detailed investigation in collaboration with relevant government agencies, the accounts of 9,066 volunteers were cleared for final payment.

As a result of the development, the five months allowance arrears of these volunteers, totaling N150,000.00 each, is currently being paid.

The statement is titled, “Press statement on the payment of outstanding allowances of Batch A and B of the 2016 and 2018 N-Power  volunteers nationwide”

It read, “Following the payment system challenges faced by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development which has been overcome, the Ministry has commenced the final payment of the arrears on the few outstanding allowances of Batches A and B N Power volunteers.”

“The accounts of these 14,021 volunteers were flagged in March 2020 by the Federal Government payment system, the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System, for various reasons including but not limited to:

 beneficiaries having multiple accounts, and

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beneficiaries account receiving other payments such as salaries and allowances from multiple Federal Government Ministries, Department and Agencies on permanent employment or for participating in other schemes.

“These acts violate the regulations guiding the N-Power volunteer programme and could amount to gross misconduct and corruption.

“The Ministry carried out detailed investigation in collaboration with relevant government MDAs and so far the accounts of 9,066 volunteers were cleared for final payment.

“Based on this reality, the 5 months allowance arrears of these volunteers, totaling N150,000.00 each, is currently being paid.

“The allowances of the remaining 4,955 is withheld pending conclusion of further investigation. Where clear violations of the agreements are established, such violators will be subjected to appropriate sanctions as stipulated by the law.