PTAD targets 150,000 pensioners in fresh verification exercise

The Pensions Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) is targeting 150,000 pensioners in fresh verification exercise going on across the country. Daily Times gathered that the agency is currently verifying federal pensioners and state pensioners with federal share.

The exercise, according to the Executive Secretary of PTAD, Barr. Sharon Ikeazor, is aimed at removing ghost workers, create easy and quick access for pensioners to receive their entitlements and proper management of pension funds.

Ikeazor said that the need to determine government’s liability underscored the ongoing verification “so that the right pensioners are put on the payroll.”

The Executive Secretary noted that PTAD came into existence in 2014 because of all the plethora of complaints and mismanagement of pensions in the country.

She pointed out, “Every pensioner that is verified by PTAD is put on the payroll and they are assured of their pensions once they appear there. If we do not do the verification exercise, how do we know the number of pensioners that government has to pay?”

She observed that When PTAD was established, “we inherited a data base that is not very credible. So, with this verification, we are cleaning out the data base, bearing in mind, that the last time civil service carried out verification in the South East, was in 2015 and it took almost a year. But this is a new administration, we have to do things right.

“We cannot keep the pensioners waiting for a very long time. So, as they are doing the verification, everything is systematic, we are batching all the forms and documents we get from them so that, when we go back to Abuja the account department is handling the computation.

“We do not sit down and just keep our pensioners. The account department, the federal auditors and the internal auditors that we have in PTAD, are working closely and getting information from Salaries and Wages Commission. They will start computing everyone’s pension benefits before we start paying.

“It takes between three to four months before we can do that,” the Executive Secretary added.

The Federal Government in 2014, set up PTAD under Federal Ministry of Finance to oversee the issues of retired federal pensioners who are not in the Contributory Pension Scheme.

Mathew Dadiya, Abuja