The National Lottery Trust Fund (NLTF) has said that its remittance “in the period under review” by the Senate was N6.3 billion and not N7 billion.
This follows the allegation of fraud levelled by the Senate against the agency.
The accusation was laid by the Senate Committee on Finance led by Adeola Olamilekan, as part of the committee’s probe of remittances of ministries and agencies of the Federal Government.
Responding to the allegation, the Executive Secretary of the NLTF, Bello Maigari, described the allegations as “mischief” to journalists.
Maigari said, “We were taken aback when we appear before the senate committee and they alleged that our procurement processes were laced with fraudulent activities.
“This is mischief at the highest level. I cannot imagine how senior members of the national assembly would be accusing us of fraud when they have not even sat down to look at our books, to check and verify how the procurement processes took place and whether or not the projects have been delivered and whether or not the processes for procurement have been violated”.
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He added that the committee had left no room for the agency’s representatives at the hearing to defend itself against the allegations presented.
He said that the committee alluded to the agency’s intervention programme concerning the procurement of sporting gear for public primary schools.
Maigari said, “For one to just jump to conclusion and alleged there is fraud is too early in the day. We would have thought we would be given the benefit of hearing for us to defend our actions so that at the end of the day they would be justice in the outcome of the committee’s assignment but I can assure you that nothing like that happened.”
“The allegation they are referring to is on the procurement of sporting equipment for public primary schools in the country.
“Over 2500 schools benefitted from nine sets of sports. We have the records and we took deep pain to go through the processes of procurement and obtained necessary approvals and that of Mr president.
“That intervention is the largest and most comprehensive intervention ever conducted by the agency till date and was conducted with transparency.
“Our remittance status in the period under review is N6.3 billion not even N7 billion as paraded. At the hearing, we are in the process of advancing our argument when they called the meeting to an end.
“No time was given to us to respond to the questions raised. They just told us to go and reconcile our account with that of the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC)
“I was indeed shocked when I heard that our Regulatory body, that is the NLRC, also does not have the records of our remittance.
“It is their duty as regulator to not only render account of what we receive as ‘good courses’ but to also render account of prices Nigerians win when they play lottery and gaming and what operators make at annual basis. For the regulatory commission to say they do not have records of our remittance shows gross incompetence and Nigerians should not accept that.
“All the sources of our revenue is of public knowledge and it is mainly from the statutory remittance. There is also no overspending. There is no way you can even spend beyond what is appropriated for you. We have rendered and reported all our audited accounts to the office of the Accountant General of the Federation and that of the Auditor General.”
