Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has disclosed that since it took over the pension management of Parastatals, Universities and Colleges of Education in August 2015, legacy pension funds amounting to N19, 137,619.94 have remained in the custody of the insurance companies.
Despite the demand notices issued on the companies involved, demanding for the transfer of these outstanding funds into PTAD;s dedicated e-collection account with the Central Bank of Nigeria( CBN) only Leadway Assurance has paid funds in its custody.
The Executive Secretary of PTAD, Barr. Sharon Ikeazor, who disclosed this while addressing journalists in her office on Tuesday, said the organisation was working closely with the Minister of Finance to ensure that all outstanding legacy funds are transferred to the agency’s account.
According to Ikeazor, this would enable PTAD to defray some of government’s liabilities arising from the non-payment of pensions.
The Executive Secretary said that the Pension Reform Act 2014 has mandated PTAD to take over all pension assets, funds and liabilities of erstwhile Pension Offices and Board of Parastatals.
She observed that while these offices and boards have been quick to transfer liabilities to PTAD, the funds and assets have not been withheld.
However, she added that the agency has been able to access funds to pay its arrears.
Barr. Ikeazor further said that all reported fraud cases are reported to the ICPC for investigation and prosecution, where applicable.
“Our collaboration with ICPC has led to detention of persons impersonating pensioners who present themselves for verification. Already, one of such cases is being prosecuted before the High Court, Bauchi with our staff acting as a prosecution witness. We are hopeful that a conviction would be obtained in the case and this would go along,” the PTAD boss pointed out.
The PTAD boss who led journalists on a facilities tour of the office to showcase the transformation of the office under her leadership, said, the agency inherited an estimated 160,000 pensioners at inception.
“Today, we administer the pensions of about 223,000 pensioners from four different pension sectors. The increase is largely due to the swift consolidation of 253 parastatals and agencies under PTAD. More agencies are being on-boarded and the numbers of pensioners are expected to increase. PTAD has never failed to make a monthly pension payment since inception.
“PTAD did not inherit a credible database from any of the pension office it took over ROM. There were nominal rolls but not complete database. The lack of the database and information on pensioners in general makes it very difficult to resolve complaints.
However, through the on-going verification exercise, we have started the build of the database of DBS pensioners. It never existed, but we are doing it for posterity to ensure that pensioners never have to come out physically for verification again,” she stated.
She intimated that verification process has been ongoing since 2014. The police pension, the paramilitary were completed as at mid-year 2015. “Upon assumption of my role, my priority was resuming nationwide civil service verification of pensioners, particularly for those from the north east region.
“The verification of all pensioners and next of kin from the North East was implemented and successfully concluded without incident. The verification of the region was completed with PTAD, achieving a capture rate of 70% representing 6,445 pensioners.”
According to her, a total of 55,400 pensioners have verified under the civil service nationwide. In fact, “in the South South alone, we were able to capture 21,123 representing a capture rate of 91%.
F2″4000 new pensioned were brought into the payroll in late 2016 following the field verification exercise conducted in 2015. The pensioners are now enjoying their regular monthly pensions and many have record their arrears.
“We are weeding out pensioners that do not belong on the payroll. PTAD removed 15000, unverified names from the payroll and has transferred the savings from those eliminated from payroll to those who have never received payment and those with outstanding benefits,” she noted.
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