COVID-19: Senate probes SIP, palliative distribution

The Senate has begun an investigation into the Federal Government’s Social Investment Programme with a view to identifying the beneficiaries and the procedure adopted in selecting them.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Special Duties, Senator Yusuf Yusuf, disclosed this in an interview in Abuja, on Monday.

He expressed dissatisfaction with the operational procedure adopted by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, particularly its claims that a World Bank model was used in determining the beneficiaries.

Yusuf also said his committee was investigating the controversies over the distribution of rice to vulnerable Nigerians and why some states rejected them.

He said the National Assembly would subsequently be involved in the SIP of the Federal Government which had gulped over N700bn since inception, in 2015.

Yusuf said apart from the probe of the various arrangements under the SIP, the National Assembly would come up with a bill aimed at producing an acceptable, fair, and transparent register for the programme.

He said, “It is an issue that is on top burner of the National Assembly. We are considering how to improve on what we have on the ground with a legal framework.

“The proposed bill will produce a fair, constructive, clear, transparently accountable register of beneficiaries. The bill will definitely improve the SIP.”