NASSIT over the years has been having challenges. The public that they serve have different definitions about their performance and some of these performances undoubtedly are for the right reasons.
Briefing the Police about the incident, Mr. Daboh noted that it is the second time in the year they are apprehending and handing-over suspects of fraudsters trying to defraud the institution.
He added that, quite recently they also discovered that their processes, performance and service delivery has been considerable challenged by some members of the public trying to bypass their benefits processing.
“This is the matter and the reason why we have called you to brief and hand over the suspect to you. These are the people that are attempting to defraud our benefits processes,” he said.
Mr. Daboh further stated that they are being challenged by these fraudsters but that they still continue to do what they are doing; citing that they will assist the investigators if another person attempts the same thing.
Speaking about the arrest the Head of Benefits NASSIT Edwin Mohamed Kamara stated that they received a file on the 11th September 2019 from their Customer’s Service Department to carry out further investigation into a claim by someone alleging to be an eligible beneficiary to a deceased’ benefits payment from Sandoh chiefdom in Kono district.
Mr. Kamara disclosed that their investigation team went to the residence of the deceased at Sandoh Chiefdom in Kono District and that during their investigation they were able to find out that the alleged claimer was not eligible.
“When we interviewed him in our regional office his responses were not consistent, which gave our staff the impression that something is wrong about his claim,” he said.
He added that the accused person is a step child of the deceased and that as a result of that, he is not legitimate to claim the benefit payment because of his age and he decided to bring in his spouse in respect of the spouse of the deceased who had already pre-deceased the spouse.
During the investigations according to Mr. Kamara, they observed that the application for the dependent’s children were not actual legitimate dependent children that should have applied, rather they were children of the accused and that those who were actually eligible to have applied were prevented from submitting an application.
“For us he has obtained an affidavit in lieu of marriage that was false, he has submitted application in respect of his spouse and dependent children that are not eligible for submitting application to make a claim for the survivors’ benefits,” he said.
He continued to say that while they were at BamgambayaSandoh Chiefdom the accused after he had know he was being investigated called his relatives persuading them that they should tell the NASSIT investigative team that he was supposed to collect the payment on their behalf.
The accused according to Mr. Kamara has been using different names and identities so that he could not be recognized.
The NCO Crime – Major Incident Unit Sergeant 9262 Joseph Collins CID Headquarter assured the Director General that the matter will be investigated speedily in accordance will the law.
