The Director-General, National Pension Commission, PenCom, Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar, could not appear before the House of Representatives Committee on Finance on Thursday to defend the Commission’s 2021/2022 Budget and present the 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework/Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP), because of an official engagement outside the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, the agency has explained.
In a statement weekend, the Commission said contrary to insinuation,
the Commissioner of Finance, the Director and Head of Accounts and the Deputy Director and Head of Financial Planning represented the DG at the hearing, which is the usual practice whenever she is unavailable. It however acknowledged that the Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Hon Saidu Abdullahi, frowned at Mrs Dahir-Umar’s absence..
The House Committee had directed that the DG should appear in person on Monday, September 12, to answer questions on the agency’s budget performance at the hearing even as it alleged that the PenCom boss has a record of not appearing before committees whenever there is need to answer questions, stressing that he was not sure her representatives could answer the committee’s questions.
But according to the statement, “PenCom appeared before the House of Representatives committee on Finance on Thursday, 08 September 2022, to defend the Commission’s 2021/2022 Budget and present the 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework/Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP).
“At the hearing, the Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Hon Saidu Abdullahi, frowned at the absence of the Commission’s Director-General, Mrs Aisha Dahir-Umar. It is pertinent to note that the DG’s absence was because she was out of town attending an official engagement. However, the Commissioner of Finance, the Director and Head of Accounts and the Deputy Director and Head of Financial Planning represented her, which is the usual practice whenever the DG is unavailable.
“The DG takes invitations from the National Assembly seriously and ensures that she attends personally except when the exigencies of her office make it impossible, in which case the relevant Commissioner and Management staff of the Commission represent her. Finally, PenCom notes with satisfaction the observation by the House Committee on the quality and comprehensiveness of the reports submitted to it by the Commission”.
Meanwhile Saidu had noted that documents available to the committee showed that, the Commission remitted only N1 billion into government coffers out of N20.7 billion it generated in 2021, which is not acceptable.
He said: “I do not know where to start because your DG is always unavoidably absent. I do not know why she is shying away from sitting with the committee and I think it calls on us to demand responsibility from her. I have seen some good numbers here; N20.7 billion generated against a projection of N20.8 billion, that is almost 100 per cent. But why will she shy away, she always has an excuse any time we ask her to appear.
“When you make tenable excuses, we can understand but in her case, she has become notorious in absconding. She plays truancy when it comes to appearing before the committees of the National Assembly.
We will step them down today and call for the DG to appear on Monday,’’ he said.
The Committee also extended the hearing on Medium Term Expenditure Framework/Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) to Thursday, September 15 adding that the extension was to accommodate absentee agencies.
He said that the Committee would not hesitate to report agencies that fail to take advantage of the extension to make their presentation.
“We will continue on Monday and end on Thursday. After Thursday, any agency that fails to appear, we will let Nigerians know those who are shying away from their responsibility that the Constitution has placed on them.
“I have said it over and over that no one was forced to take up responsibility in government. You willingly accepted to serve the people, you willingly accepted to represent the people,” he said, adding that “the committee and by extension, the National Assembly will not tolerate any agency shying away from answering or taking responsibility for their mandate.”
