Minister of Finance, Kemi Adesousn has said her ministry is investigating the Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YouWin) programme initiated under Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, because of the allegations of fraud and irregularities it has received.
According to her, the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA) has been mandated to review each suspected case to determine whether any irregularity occurred.
Adeosun said this in a statement issued by the Director (Information) in the ministry, Salisu Na’Inna Dambatta.
The statement reads in part: “The attention of the management of the Federal Ministry of Finance has been drawn to a story in The Punch newspaper of Tuesday, March 28, 2017 entitled, “Probe Uncovers Massive Fraud in YouWin Programme.
“It will be recalled that the current administration inherited YouWin as an ongoing programme, which had made legally binding commitments of grants to 1,500 entrepreneurs. The administration decided that those commitments should be honoured.
“It was in that regard that a batch of awardees under YouWin 3 was submitted to the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, for cash disbursement totaling N611 821,910 million.
“Allegations were received from an anonymous whistleblower, which provided documentary evidence of irregularities in 10 cases out of the batch. The Minister immediately directed that an internal investigation be conducted to determine the veracity of the alleged fraud and report the findings to her for necessary action.
“The substance of the allegations was that an awardee was the child of a former Director in the Ministry and there were a number of cases where married couples each benefitted. This raised concerns about the integrity of the original selection process, which took place in 2014.
“The position of the Ministry is that investigations are ongoing under the Presidential Initiative on Continues Audit (PICA) who will review each suspected case to determine whether any irregularity occurred. In the interim, disbursements of this batch have been suspended.”
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