By LOVETH AZODO, Lagos
Members of the Association of Retired Federal Senior Public Officers of Nigeria (ARFESPON) is requesting that the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) revert to the officially approved monthly benefit payment structure recommended by the Salaries and Wages Commission for the disbursement of their monthly pension benefits.
They are urging PTAD to abandon its custom payment structure, which consistently results in reduced payments to pensioners each month.
Furthermore, the group is calling upon PTAD to ensure the enforcement of Section 173 of the Nigerian Constitution, which stipulates an automatic increase in pension benefits whenever there is a salary and allowances raise for active government employees.
They have raised concerns that PTAD has expressed reluctance to adhere to the constitutional provision concerning periodic increases in pension benefits every five years, even when there is no salary adjustment for government employees.
The Chairman of ARFESPON Lagos Chapter, Mr Olufemi Odewabi, who made this call at the group’s meeting in Lagos recently urged the Executive Secretary of PTAD, Dr Chioma Ejikeme, to cease the opportunity of her second coming as PTAD Executive Secretary to correct some mistakes and maltreatments she meted out to pensioners during her first tenure in office.
Odewabi told journalists at the meeting that Salaries and Wages commission had prepared a salary structure based on minimum wage on which his members’ monthly benefits payments should be based but that PTAD on its own raised a different salary structure which it uses in paying pensioners’ monthly benefits.
According to him, this table is contrary to the one set up by salaries and wages commission and short pays every pensioner every month.
He said based on the PTAD table, a level 15 officer receives the benefit meant for level 12 officer.
He said the executive members of the group had engaged PTAD severally on this but it maintained a deviant stand.
He said even his personal phone calls to the agency to this effect had not yielded any result.
Blaming this on the fact that none of PTAD staff in charge of these payments have worked as treasury staff, Odewabi said the situation was very erroneous.
He recalled that at the last meeting with PTAD, the Executive Secretary said that the downward adjustment in pensioners’ monthly benefit was due to lack of funds but had promised that they would be paid when the funds were available.
He said instead of this what PTAD did was to run advertorials in newspapers and dispatched personal letters to over 200,000 pensioners alleging that they were overpaid for some time therefore the concerned pensioners were to receive the short paid benefits to pay back the overpayment.
Questioning the rationale in placing newspaper advertorials instead of paying pensioners their correct entitlements, Odewabi said the group’s case with PTAD has gotten to a point where both Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission should look into their matter.
He urged PTAD to ensure the replication of the 40 percent allowance increase made to serving staff of government and implement what section 173 of Nigerian constitution said concerning pensioners’ benefits or expunge it so that they will know that it is not existing.
“There is also delay in payment of some of our members’ retirement entitlement. They only pay the monthly entitlements but delay the payment of the lump sum entitlements of some of our members. For instance, one of our members had his entitlement lump sum paid 20 years after his death whereas he has been going for the payment and PTAD has been delaying in whatever findings it was making before the payment”.
He said 20 years after the demise of the pensioner the money was paid to his dependents.He questioned what PTAD was doing all these years when the matter was handed over to it till the time of payment.
They reminded PTAD that they were retired staff of various federal government agencies and most of them were accountants and have served to facilitate payment of pension benefits of pensioners who retired while they were in service questioning why it would get to their turn and the whole system changed.
One of the pensioners, Mr MacDonald Ofunne recalled that he missed his sleep for seven days to prepare retirement benefits of pensioners when he heard that about 40 pensioners in his agency did not receive their entitlement two months after their retirement.
According to him, he had to work day and night to see that they were paid without further delay.
When OPTIMUM TIMES contacted PTAD, a staff of the agency who pleaded anonymous said he was not aware of the said delay.
He however said if it has been happening the concerned pensioners should place the two tables side by side and let the public see it.He said from experience with the pensioners the situation could be that they complained and the department in charge was verifying their status and computing the benefits to see where the shortfall was coming from before the correct payment would be made .He said if this was the case the pensioners should realise that delay is not
