Imo uncovers 8, 549 ghost pensioners, saves N280m monthly

Governor Emeka Ihedioha of Imo State on Thursday announced that the State government has uncovered a total of 8,549 ghost pensioners on its payroll just as he revealed that the administration would be spending the sum of N1, 218,175,387 for both State and local government pensioners monthly.

In a state wide broadcast on Thursday, Governor Ihedioha revealed that his administration inherited six years of pension arrears and discovered inexplicable discrepancies in the total number of pensioners in both the State and 27 local governments.

The payment of arrears of pensions in the state came barely a week the governor had, at a stakeholders meeting on pensions matters at Imo Concorde hotel, Owerri, where he announced that payment will commence on Thursday.

He said: “I would like to appeal to all our citizens that the challenge of payment of a pensions bills standing over N1.2 billion monthly is very enormous. This calls for sacrifices by all citizens…”

“We are confronted with the necessity to source for the revenue to ensure a good life for our senior citizens”.

Governor Ihedioha recalled that on assumption of office, his administration embarked on a wide range of reforms geared towards achieving effective service delivery, ensuring value for money and entrenching transparency in governance, cumulative factors which led to the setup of an investigative committee to look into the process of pensioners in the state which was riddled with intractable problems and corruption.

He said: “One of such frameworks was the Imo State Pension Board and its corresponding pension management system which was afflicted with intractable problems and riddled with corruption. Sadly, we inherited six years of pension arrears and discovered inexplicable discrepancies in the total number of pensioners in both the State and the 27 local governments. We received complaints on various forms of irregularities in the scheme from various pension beneficiaries and stakeholders”.

He recalled the challenges his administration confronted in handling the issue of pensioners in the state after years of neglect.

Ihedioha said despite the challenges, he was determined to ensure senior citizens in the state enjoy their toil of yester years.

“When we made to resolve the contending issues, we were confronted with conflicting information from various offices in charge of pension administration. Consequently, we could not ascertain the proper position of monthly pension liabilities in the state.

“As you all are aware, it has been my declared commitment to ensure that our senior citizens retire in joyful hope, live in dignity and extended the courtesy they deserve. Accordingly, we set up an investigative committee to carry out a comprehensive audit of the pension administration system in the state. The main objectives of this action was to ascertain the actual number of pensioners in Imo State and to end the corruption and perennial cycle of verifications that have plagued the process over the years.”

He said the State Executive Council took a close look at the report which revealed several challenges suffocating the pension system in the state.

“Some of the challenges were a dearth of information due to the absence of a reliable database as well as irregular payments arising from flawed data. Most times, the data were hastily cobbled up from a plethora of committees and subsequently, carried conflicting information. As a result, the integrity of the available data was grossly compromised.

“There is also the issue of a failed attempt to establish an electronic database for pensioners through various consultants after so much financial commitment.

“Pursuant to their mandate, the Committee undertook the extraction and analysis of 48,481 records comprising 28,658 from the Office of the Head of Service (OHOS) of the State and 19,823 from the Local Government Pension Board. After it had processed the records, the Committee finally verified 24,431 pensioners. These were, subsequently, consolidated in a central server for the validation phase”.

Governor Ihedioha said huge funds were saved for the state after the process of paying pensioners were reviewed and re-examined.

“It is very instructive that out of an initial monthly bill of N1, 499,157,895.00 being accrual for 33,541 state and LGA pensioners, presented to the state government as at May 2019, the amount has been trimmed down to N1, 218,175,387 for 24,992 pensioners. This entails a savings of N280, 982,508.00 or 18.7 percent per month. Consequently, a total of 8,549 or 25 percent of ghost pensioners in all were filtered out. This represents the amount of state resources that would have gone into the drains without the necessary due diligence.

“These involved cases of duplication and over payments engendered by wrong parameters, calculation errors or deliberate falsifications. There were instances in which Level 6 officers were earning pensions for Level 16. Unfortunately, while the pensioners received pensions due them as retired Level 6 officers, the balance of the funds could not be accounted for.

“To carry through necessary processes, we have set up machinery for the quick commencement of payments. We are working with the banks to ensure prompt transmission of payments to the various pensioners. It would gladden you to know that the process also includes those who recently retired. Yes, indeed, as the months roll by, more people are hopping unto the retirement train. We are leveraging the Bank Verification Number (BVN) system as well as online real-time payment technology. This is to ensure that beneficiaries are easily authenticated and would get their payments at the click of the button, directly and not through proxies or surrogates”.

Governor Ihedioha directed the creation of a Unit in the State Pension Board to capture those who were not part of the exercise.

“I am aware that a few but significant group of pensioners who are out of the state or in the Diaspora have not been captured because they could not be available during the exercise.

He also ordered the setup of a central database for pensioners in the state.

He appealed to “all our taxpaying adults and businesses to keep faith with our tax and revenue payments, adding, “Taxes to whom taxes are due and revenues to whom revenues are due” are fundamental tenets enjoined by the scriptures. In the same vein, public servants charged with the responsibility of stewardship over public revenue would henceforth face a greater scrutiny”.

He said his administration will introduce strict measures by instituting a regime of stricter revenue collection, accounting and monitoring.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Sir PU Ugochukwu, has hailed Governor Ihedioha for keeping to his words to ensure pensioners are paid from today.

“I am overjoyed and that is the mood of my members across the state and local government. The governor has proved that he is a man that can be trusted when he makes a promise. We closely monitored the verification exercise and I can tell you that it was far-reaching and revealing. I expect that the payment will go round since they have commenced payment,” he stated.