SaharaReporters gathered on Saturday that top on the list of the officials that could soon face investigation were the former DG, Fadah, and the NYSC Director of Finance and Accounts, identified as Abdulazeez Ominisi.
Many top officials of the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) may soon face a probe following alleged massive siphoning of funds from the scheme under the six-month leadership of the sacked Director-General, Brig Gen Muhammad Fadah, SaharaReporters has learnt.
SaharaReporters gathered on Saturday that top on the list of the officials that could soon face investigation were the former DG, Fadah, and the NYSC Director of Finance and Accounts, identified as Abdulazeez Ominisi.
Fadah took over the helms of affairs of the scheme only six months ago but allegedly failed to follow the guidelines for procurement processes and other civil service rules at the NYSC, leading to his ultimate sack by President Muhammadu Buhari, about two weeks ago.
According to one of the sources, Fadah allegedly built two hotels in his six months at the scheme, as the Directorate of Finance and Accounts (DFA) reportedly took over the functions of the audit department to ensure that there were no delays in releasing monies.
“There is tension now at the NYSC over the imminent probe. The DFA is jittery that should the government probe the finances of the NYSC, there is no way of escape as most of the monies released from the NYSC coffers ended up in private accounts and without recourse to procurement processes,” the source revealed.
“It was one hell of a period for the NYSC. It was a bazaar of contracts with 100% upfront payments. Most times, these contracts are not executed. And the interesting part is that payments are mostly cash and not bank transfers in line with extant rules,” another source added.
"It was like the former DG knew his tenure was going to be short, and he was alleged to have fleeced the NYSC to an unimaginable level. Sometimes, verbal approvals were enough to get monies out of the system. Of course, the Director of Finance and Accounts, Mr Isah Abdulazeez Ominisi was at the centre of everything because he was also a beneficiary of the heist,” SaharaReporters was told.
"Do you know that in less than six months, the former DG was able to build two hotels? The DFA directly supervised the project. He paid the contractor directly until the hotels were completed. At a time, the DFA's office was the busiest in the NYSC. The DFA also took over the functions of the audit department to ensure that there were no delays in releasing monies.”
Another source in the accounts department, who didn’t want his name in print, stated that a comprehensive probe of the NYSC by the anti-graft agencies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was needed to recover some of the stolen public funds.
"It is a tense situation presently in the department. You could feel palpable tension as record books are backdated and doctored to erase all traces of wrongdoing. But it is not easy. The evidence cannot be erased,” he said.
The spokesperson of the NYSC, Eddy Megwa, could not be reached for comments as of the time of filing this report.