The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has begun auditing remittances of monies deducted from workers’ salaries from 2010 to 2022.

The FCTA permanent secretary, Olusade Adesola, inaugurated the exercise on Tuesday in Abuja. He said the investigation would cover statutory and non-statutory deductions from the workers’ payroll.

Mr Adesola said the action was necessary to ensure timely remittance of all deductions to third-party beneficiaries. He added that the auditing aligned with the FCTA’s commitment to ensuring transparency, accountability, and responsible financial management.

The permanent secretary also said the investigation was to avoid the current situation in which FCTA retirees could not claim their National Housing Funds (NHF) contributions from the Federal Mortgage Bank.

Mr Adesola said an auditing firm, M/S G.E. Osagie and Co., was engaged to conduct the audit from 2010 to 2022, adding that the firm would investigate taxes, pension, and insurance deductions, as well as employees’ contributions to cooperative societies and other welfare programmes.

According to him, the goal is to establish the total liabilities of the unremitted statutory and non-statutory deductions due to third-party beneficiaries.

“It will also determine the payments made to the various receivers of the statutory and non-statutory payments on behalf of each staff of the FCTA for NHF, Health Insurance Scheme, Pay as You Earn (PAYE), and cooperatives,” the FCTA official noted. 

The FCTA permanent secretary added, “The exercise is to also determine outstanding obligations and ascertain individuals and officials responsible where deductions were not made, and make recommendations as appropriate.”

He explained that this would ensure that the deducted funds from “our employees’ salaries are promptly remitted to the rightful beneficiaries.”

(NAN)