SaharaReporters gathered that the independent monitors are being owed February, March and April 2020 stipends by government.
Independent monitors of the National Social Investment Programme have continued to lament the non-payment of their monthly stipends by the Nigerian Government.
The independent monitors said they had not received stipends for three months, a situation they said had made life difficult for them and their family members.
The team monitors activities and performances of various programmes of the Federal Government under the Social Investment program, N-power, Home Grown School feeding, Tradermoni, Market money, and Conditional Cash Transfer in various states of the country.
SaharaReporters gathered that the independent monitors are being owed February, March and April 2020 stipends by government.
A member of the team in Ondo State, Kehinde Busari, decried the non-payment of their monthly stipends, adding that they have written several letters to get the attention of government without luck.
Busari noted that the failure of government to pay their stipends had made it difficult for them to put food on their tables during the COVID-19 lockdown period.
Another monitor, who identified herself as Bose Stella, said the refusal to pay them their three months stipend had taken a toll on her as she had no other means of survival.
She said, “We have a general Whatsapp group platform and I wish you could see how people are complaining and groaning over the non-payment of this money. You know many of us don’t have job and we depend only on this programme to survive.
“For me, I have been using the money received from this programme to feed myself but now they have stopped paying us since three months without an explanation for this.
“We are pleading with the Federal Government to pay us, we are suffering and hungry.”
Also speaking, Mr Abiodun Ogunleye disclosed that the N-SIP independent monitors across the country have been performing their responsibilities since August 2018 when they were inaugurated, wondering why they should owed salaries without any reason given to them.
He said, "We the N-SIP independent monitoring team are yet to receive our February, March, April stipends, and we didn't get our January stipend until few weeks ago.
"Treating us this way is the least we expected from the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and whatever the problem is, we deserve to know."
Findings revealed that issues concerning payment of stipend for the independent monitors began after the Social Investment Programme was moved outside the office of Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo.
President Muhammadu Buhari had in October last year moved the N-SIP from the office of the Vice President to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.
Speaking on the matter, an official of N-SIP said the ministry was already looking into the payment of the independent monitors.
He said, "Although, there are internal issues on ground which we are resolving, we discovered that some of these people were fixed into these schemes by politicians and we need to know who and who are really working."