By Baron Ike
Winifred Oyo-Ita, Nigeria’s Head of the Civil Service has taken exception to reports that said N16 billion meant for Civil Servants Group Life Insurance Scheme (GLIS) had been stolen from her office.
The Leading Reporters Nigeria, an online news platform, had alleged that Oyo-Ita and others stole N16 billion meant for GLIS.
But she denied the report on Friday in Abuja at the stakeholders’ forum on the review of Public Service Rules (PSR).
Oyo-Ita said: “I will not want to address the very fallacious news item making the rounds as regards N16 billion missing from the GLIS funds. I want to say that whoever started that story does not quite understand how the group life works.
“The GLIS was set up to be able to ensure that government meets up with benefits of any civil or public servant who, in the process of doing his work as a civil servant, loses his or her life.
“This GLIS is the policy that is carried out with underwriters; these underwriters are being regulated by the National Insurance Commission (NIC).”
She also explained that the NIC regulates premiums that are paid to these underwriters and that the last group life programme was actually handled by the sub-committee of cabinet chaired by the minister of finance at the time.
Her words: “The fund for that programme is always domiciled with the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation. The only thing that the Head of Service does is to compile the names of all the Ministries, Department and Agencies(MDAs), that are to be under the group life policy.
“For someone to say that N16 billion has gone missing in my office is strange to me and to many others who understand how the GLIS works.”