The National Pension Commission has debunked claims that it spent millions of dollars on estacodes for the Director General of the commission, Aisha Dahir-Umar, during the 2020 COVID lockdown.
PenCom, in a statement by its management says the recent report which was carried by an online platform was fictitious and sponsored by mischief makers who are currently jostling for appointments in the country.
PenCom further stated that “All rates for estacode payments are standardised and foreign trips require strict documentation, including air tickets, stamped passport pages and evidence of the number of days spent
“Even if the DG were to spend two years abroad without returning to the country for one day, her estacode allowances would not be up to a million dollars.”
“This poor attempt at calumny is exposed by the fact that there was a global lockdown in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic during which international travels were restricted”
“Offices were shut down and most people had to hold virtual meetings. It is, thus, most outlandish to suggest that any government agency would claim to be paying allowances to its officials for international travels when most airports were shut down globally.”
PenCom maintained that it was aware of current political intrigues in the country caused by the jostling for appointments, however it believe there are more decent ways of going about it than peddling tales by moonlight and using notorious online outlets to push the lies to unsuspecting readers.
The public is implored to ignore these fake documents and the discredited allegations being recycled at the slightest opportunity. The Commission has nothing to hide and will continue to run a transparent and accountable system.
