THE Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has acknowledged an error in its statement on the investigation into the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).
The Commission noted that the mistake gave a false impression that discrepancies was observed in the loan scheme.
In a statement on Thursday, May 1, the Commission explained that a missing word in the “econd-to-last paragraph” of its earlier statement led to a misrepresentation of its findings.
“Unintentionally, the word “NOT” was missing in the second to the last paragraph of our earlier press release in respect of an ongoing investigation regarding Student Loan Scheme. The missing word created an erroneous impression that the alleged discrepancies or diversion has been established.
“We admit that this is not the case, indeed we accept that the same part of the sentence also contradicted the whole paragraph,” the statement said.
The ICPC stated that the paragraph in question should have read, *The ICPC confirmed that a clear case of discrepancies has NOT been established in the administration of the student loan scheme and announced that its investigation will now extend to beneficiary institutions and individual student recipients*.
“For avoidance of doubts, the Commission has only established the total amount of funds received and disbursed so far by NELFUND.
“The impression of diversion and the issue of discrepancies do not exist at this stage; the investigation would have to move into the receiving institutions and persons before any reasonable deductions could be made,” the latest statement read.
However, going by this, The ICIR can still confirm that the N44 billion quoted by the ICPC was conflicting with NELFUND claim of disbursing N53.8 billion to students for institutional fees and upkeep allowances in its latest report released on Friday, April 25.
A breakdown of N53.8 billion, which the organisation said it disbursed, showed that N30.17 billion was allocated for institutional fees, while N23.65 billion was earmarked for student upkeep.
The ICPC also said 299 institutions benefited from the loan scheme, contradicting NELFUND’s report of 271 institutions listed on its portal.
NELFUND, however, has dismissed any mismanagement, insisting its figures were accurate and the process was fully automated, leaving no room for manipulation.
Mustapha Usman is an investigative journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: musman@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M