FCTA To Audit Remittance Of Payroll Deductions

To ensure that deductions from the payroll of workers are timely remitted to the third-party beneficiaries, the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA has flagged off the auditing of the remittance of statutory and non-statutory deductions from the payroll of workers from year 2010 to 2022.

Conducting the flag-off exercise in Abuja recently at the FCT Minister’s conference room, the FCT Permanent Secretary, Mr. Olusade Adesola disclosed that the auditing of the remittances of payroll deductions is in line with the FCTA’s objectives and commitment to ensure transparency, accountability and responsible financial management.

The remittance of statutory deductions to be audited, according to the Permanent Secretary, include taxes, pensions and insurance, while the non-statutory deductions fall under employee contributions to cooperative societies and various welfare programmes.

The audit exercise, according to Permanent Secretary is also being carried out to ensure that the Administrations obligations to third-party beneficiaries are met with utmost integrity. The Permanent Secretary who noted that remittances of payroll deductions play pivotal roles in maintaining the welfare of the FCTA workforce, lamented that remittances for both statutory and non-statutory deductions from the payroll of workers since 2010 had faced some setbacks.

Some of the problems created as a result of such non-remittances, he said, include the failure by FCTA retirees to claim their National Housing (NHF) funds from the Federal Mortgage Banks, due to non-posting of the deductions as a result of discrepancies in the schedules accompanying the payment of such deductions.

As a result, the FCT Administration, he said, found it expedient to engage an Audit Consultant, M/S G.E. Osagie and Co. to audit the payroll of the FCTA from 2010 to 2022 in order to establish the unremitted statutory and non-statutory deductions due as liabilities to third party beneficiaries. In the same vein, the auditing exercise will determine the payments made to the various receivers of the statutory and non-statutory payments by staff and on behalf of each staff of the FCTA from 2010 to 2022 for NHF, FCT Health Insurance Scheme, Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and Cooperative deductions.