PSC denies corruption allegations, says affairs run in line with law

PSC Chairman, Musiliu Smith

The Police Service Commission has denied the allegations that the PSC Chairman, Musiliu Smith, was involved in multi-million naira contract scams and mismanagement of resources that gulped resources of the commission.

The PSC also debunked the claims that Smith has been running the affairs of the commission arbitrarily without consultation with the commissioners of the PSC.

The spokesperson of the commission, Ikechukwu Ani, made this known in an interview with The Star on Tuesday.

Ani said all procurements and expenditure of the commission were done in line with the guiding laws of the government.

“The request, approval and expenditure found in the petition were carried out in line with government approved financial regulations.

“They were in line with government approval. And those that require approval of ministerial tender’s board were brought before the board and approval received. Some others got the certificate of no objection from the Bureau of Public Procurement,” he said.

According to him, some funds were released directly to staff to execute some projects, adding that the “approval were sufficiently granted for staff and payment were made to execute some certain projects.

“All the allegations are on issues that went through government-approved financial regulations. There is a law that regulates financial activities of government. You have the ministerial tender’s board, you have the bureau of public procurement,” he added.

Ani, who said the commission has not failed to hold its plenary session four times a year as required by the law, noted that two out of four meetings of the plenary have been held in 2022.

“The highest decision making body of the commission is plenary meeting. We hold plenary meeting four times every year. It is the requirement of the law. We have done two this year. The plenary hold quarterly,” he said.

The PSC spokesman argued that the petitioner may not be aware of the running of the affairs of the commission because she is a part-time commissioner.

He added that the commission did not pay Duty Tour Allowance (DTA) of N32 million into a single account.

“The petitioner is a part-time commissioner and may not be abreast with the day-to-day running of the commission.

“When they are writing voucher of 100 people on a government-approved trip for example, the voucher paper is not a foolscap page. They will just take a first name there and raise the voucher but the approving letter will carry the name of the people traveling and their ranks and the money paid to in to individual account.

“It is a voucher that she quoted and the voucher said first person and others. The money didn’t go to a single account because on the approval page everybody’s name was there,” Ani stated.

Ani added that the commission was compiling a report which would be sent to the government on the issue.

The Star had earlier reported that the PSC commissioner, Hajia Naja’atu Muhammad, petitioned the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) on the corruption scandals rocking the commission through award of multimillion contract scams, mismanagement of resources, and arbitrary handling of the commission by the PSC Chairman, Musiliu Smith.

The Star