Regina Otokpa 
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Simon Lalong has set up a committee to investigate and resolve the various complaints arising from the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF).
Lalong who made the disclosure during a familiarization visit to the Fund in the company of the Minister of State Labour and Employment, Nkiru Onyejeocha on Tuesday in Abuja, said the Committee will be inaugurated today, Wednesday, October 4, 2023.
The minister who noted that the move was not targeted at witch-hunting anyone, explained that it was aimed at improving services and adding value to operations of the agency.
He said, “We saw achievements but we also saw a lot of complaints that came and that’s why we all came to look at this concern, to see how we address these issues.
“There is no agency that has no problem, there is no Ministry that has no problem but when you have the problem, you look at ways to address them so that you can move forward.
“There are internal and external complaints against the management of the Fund which we intend to address. Complaints about unfair administrative practices, and also irregular promotions. We have complaints about the lack of vacancies amidst the stagnation of staff. Court cases as the MD mentioned about disengagement of certain staff, disharmony between in-house unions and management.
“Staff grievances on the irregularity of grade levels coalescing, employment of persons to fill up vacancies in the fund and staff conditions of service, disharmony among management staff of the fund, insubordination, no clear direction on the implementation of the E-NSITF phase 2.
“As a way forward, I quickly set up a committee and that committee I’m going to inaugurate tomorrow to handle all the complaints, summarize and bring them to me.
“All these are meant to improve your services, it is not meant to witch-hunt anybody but be sure, I like using the word unbundling, but unbundling doesn’t mean chasing people away but anywhere I go and if I don’t add value, I realize I have not made anything. So we are here to add value to the Ministry of Labour and Employment.”
On the shelved indefinite strike by organised labour, he said, “We must give kudos to Mr. President. He is a Democrat. Without him, everybody was thinking it was going to be the mother of all strikes but to his honour, we were able to achieve this, and I must say, with the cooperation of the labour leaders, Nigeria is moving forward.
“I don’t expect to see other strike in the next one or two years . Though when we did it yesterday, today we just saw on television that some organizations are already embarking on strike. Let strike not be an achievement . It is not an achievement.
“Strike is always bringing us backwards. When we bring up issues, let us try and implement them and see the effect of it rather than sitting down every time and talking of strike.”
Earlier, Managing Director of NSITF, Maureen Allagoa who X-rayed the trajectory of the Fund however noted they were challenges the Fund was grappling with.
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“A prominent challenge that has occurred in 2022 with a threat to reoccur in 2023 is the implementation of the deduction of 40% of the employers’ contribution to the Fund by the Ministry of Finance as an operating surplus under the premise of the implementation of the Fiscal Responsibility Act. N1.4bn was deducted and paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) in line with the Finance Act 2020.
“There is also the challenge of the limitations of the ECA 2010 in that it does not cover some situations especially in the areas of claims and compensation and the informal sector.
“These existing gaps in the law have variously been exploited by dubious employers to the detriment of employees. There is need for an amendment of the Act to close up these gaps.
“Another challenge the Fund is faced with is the big hurdle of the implementation of the recent FEC approval for the deduction at source of the 1% ECS contributions for all workers in the Public service of the Federation and the appropriation for the backlog of arrears from 2012 to 2023.”
