Drag Me to EFCC or ICPC, Bailey Challenges Accusers
By Nnamdi Duru
The Commissioner for Insurance, Dr. Oladipo Bailey has challenged his detractors to invite the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) or the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) to investigate him if they have proofs of his alleged fraudulent dealings in the commission.
The Commissioner in recent times has been battling some interests within the organisation, a development that peaked with media hype in the last one week. This battle of wits has really affected the Nigerian insurance industry negatively, the continued postponement of the enforcement date of the uniform Vehicle Insurance Sticker VISER) in the country lays credence to this.
The lid to the boardroom crisis was blown open by a section of the management of NAICOM who levelled accusations of gross financial misapplication and fraud by inflating the production cost of VISER by N550 million against the Commissioner.
The recent liquidation of 14 insurance firms that were unable to meet the capitalisation stipulated in the Insurance Act, 2003 re-echoed last week, causing ripples in NAICOM's management.
A cross section of the management of the commission was reported to have dragged the Commissioner before the Finance Minister, Dr. (Mrs.) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for usurpation of their powers.
Bailey was alleged to have unilaterally paid out N4.2 million out of a total of N14 million liquidation fees to appointed liquidators of the affected insurance firms after the commission's Director of Finance refused to endorse the cheques. The commissioner's directive to that effect was said to have been deliberately ignored by the Finance Director for want of conviction.
The opposing management faction also alleged that Bailey violated due process and laid down regulations for liquidation of dead companies claiming that it was not the responsibility of NAICOM to pay liquidators.
To worsen the internal crisis, a member of NAICOM's Tender Board Committee again accused Bailey of inflating the contract for the production of the newly introduced Vehicle Insurance Sticker (VISER) to the tune of N550 million. The commission awarded the contract to a London based printing outfit, Rockstone International Limited.
The contract was initially for the production of 5 million VISER stickers to be effected in batches of 400,000 at N39 per sticker, which the Commissioner was alleged to have inflated to N50 per sticker.
A member of the committee was reported to have alleged that Bailey inflated the unit price of the sticker by N11 and recommended its cancellation before the recent dissolution of NAICOM's board.
Reacting to the allegation of unilaterally paying liquidators, Bailey maintained that the Commissioner for Insurance has been empowered by the subsisting Insurance law to pay liquidators' emoluments even as he stressed that the money was drawn from the security fund contributed by insurance companies for the development of the industry as mandated by the Insurance Act, 2003.
Bailey's opponents have countered that it is not the responsibility of the Commission to pay the fees for liquidating weak and dead insurance companies. They also maintained that no fund was set aside for such purposes by the commission and that liquidation fees should be paid out of proceeds from the sale of assets of the affected companies.
Bailey in telephone interview with THISDAY also reacted to the allegation of inflating the production cost of VISER to the tune of N550 million leveled against him, challenging his detractors to drag him to ICPC or the EFCC if they believe that he has commited fraud in the commission.
"They should get EFCC to arrest me, they can also take me to ICPC. I don't know why the reporter was writing such sensational stories. Does he think this is going to move anybody here. It is not fair at all", Bailey said.
|
