States Withhold N3.4bn Workers’ Pension Contribution.
Another large scale pension fraud seem to be building up as N3.4 billion deducted from the salaries of workers at states level is being withheld by some state governments.
National Pension Commission (PenCom) disclosing this Wednesday said over 38 percent of the over N3.4 billion un-remitted contribution had been outstanding for over a year.
The pension regulation mandated the employers to deduct certain percentage from the employees’ salaries and add equal percentage to it and be paid to the Retired Savings Account (RSA) accounts of each employees at their chosen PFAs
Nigeria experienced large scale pension fraud in 2012 when federal civil servants that had spent their most active life in serving the country left the service without their gratuities. The fraud is still under prosecution in courts while some of the retirees had died in penury.
The Acting Director-General, PenCom, Mrs Aisha Dahir-Umar disclosed at the 2019 second quarter consultative forum consisting of critical pension stakeholders in Lagos said the issue has defied solution as state governments are still not remitting pension contribution fund deducted from the employees salaries into the employees’ Retired Savings Accounts (RSAs).
At the forum, organised by the commission, and attended by critical pension stakeholders from all states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Dan Ndackson, PenCom’s Head, State Operations Department who represented the Pencom Boss stated that the issue is a major item that requires urgent discussion and solution as it denies concerned employees the investment income that should have accrued to them..
Over 60 critical pension stakeholders were present at the forum including the Head of Service (HoS), Adamawa state, Director-General, Ondo-State Pension Commission, Mr Jayeola Olowosuko, the Permanent Secretary, Establishment and Training, office of HoS, Adamawa-state, Prince Talmon Fwa, a first class chief in Adamawa of a tribe of Mbula.
She told the platform that the issue had recurred for a long time noting that 38 percent of the N3.4billion unremitted pension contributions as May 31, had been outstanding for over one year.
“All hands must be on deck to address this problem holistically.
“The stakeholders must be mindful that the hopes of prospective retirees are hinged on the successful implementation of the CPS, which was instituted in response to the failure of the Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS).
She also hinted of the steady progress of CPS in some states, especially with regards to remittance of pension contributions, noting that N8.09 billion were remitted at the end of March this year.
“Returns submitted to the commission by the PFAs further revealed that over N8.09 billion were remitted as pension contributions of state employees in the first quarter of 2019,” , Dahir-Umar said.
She said that the second quarter in the country’s pension landscape recorded remarkable achievements.
Dahir-Umar said the commission, so far, has conducted three PFA branches inspections in Edo, Ondo and Ekiti states and therefore urged the PFAs to take necessary actions for better service delivery as more inspections of PFA branches are coming.
The platform enables the stakeholders to brainstorm on challenges in the implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) with a view to proffering solutions to such challenge within the ambit of the CPS.
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