Society Gists

Imo State government is on the verge of being blacklisted by the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, following the inability or unwillingness of the state to adhere to due process.
SocietyGists gathered that UNICEF advanced N13,817,116 to the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development for the training of a specialised unit of the Nigeria Police, which was, however, botched due to internal wrangling.
It was also gathered that when UNICEF officials from the organisation’s ‘A’ Field Office, Enugu, visited the Ministry on March 11 to assess the situation, there were no documents to support retirements for the direct cash transfers totaling N13.8 million.
Some staff of the Ministry, who spoke on strict grounds of anonymity, expressed shock that “there was no record of monies advanced to the Ministry by UNICEF.”
While some staff of the Ministry blamed the UNICEF Desk Officer, Mrs. Patricia Nsofor, for “the non-production of the financial documents on demand,” the later denied culpability.
She recalled that she wrote and got UNICEF approval for the training of the special police unit, adding that the programme was cancelled by the Commissioner, Mrs. Nma Onyechere, who was then new in the Ministry.
Nsofor equally recalled that when the programme was cancelled, some of the participants had already checked into their hotels in readiness for the training.
She said: “After the cancella-tion, I immediately wrote to the Ministry’s Director, Child Development on the need to return the un-used money to UNICEF. My letter was dated November 26, 2013.”
She said that instead of returning the money as requested, an instruction to change signatories to the Ministry’s UNICEF account was given.
She said: “On December 2, 2013, UNICEF sent a demand notice to the Ministry for the return of the unused programme fund. UNICEF equally demanded immediate refund of any outstanding balance for programmes executed.”
Other sympathetic staff told SocietyGists that instead of obeying UNICEF, some people erroneously felt that Nsofor masterminded the development.
“She is a level 14 officer and because of this development, she has been posted to Orlu, to occupy a position meant for a level 8 officer. This is Imo for you,” the staff said.