*N48 million pension funds allegedly unremitted; N188 million co-operative money “missing”

BY IKENNA ASOMBA

Trouble is brewing at the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, AOCOED, Ijanikin, Lagos, over N48 million pension fund allegedly un-remitted, and N188million perceived ‘missing’ staff cooperative fund.

Already the lecturers under the aegis of Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union, COEASU, AOCOED chapter, have issued a two-week ultimatum to the management of the institution to explain the whereabouts of the funds or they would stop all academic activities in the college indefinitely.

Speaking after an emergency meeting of the union, Chairman of COEASU, Mr. Avosetinyen Sonayon lamented that besides the missing N188 million cooperative funds, over N48 million un-remitted pension funds to the staff Pension Funds Administrators, PFAs, among other contentious issues that must be conclusively addressed by management to guarantee industrial peace in the school.

No remittance of pension funds
Claiming that management had failed to remit staff pension funds since December 2012, the COEASU chairman said: “We have often times asked the management to present in the open the budget of the school, if it knows that what government is giving is not enough. But the management has always argued that it is using the school’s Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, to augment our salaries. We are contesting this because we know what the institution is generating as IGR . But the management called the union bluff, even though we have kept on negotiating with them.

Let us even assume that what the management is generating as IGR is used to augment staff salaries, why must you owe the cooperative? As we talk our members are dying, especially retirees who have not been paid their pension since December 2012. There has been no remittance to the PFAs, like IBTC. I know how I personally spend to cater for some of them who come to me for financial assistance.”

“The government expects our management to augment staff salaries and other emolument with its IGR. But when we discovered that the management is tactically short-changing us, we wrote to the Special Adviser, SA, to the Governor on Education in June 2012, that we were generating about N1 billion annually as IGR, and that there was no reason for the management to withhold our cooperative funds amounting to over N188 million and our over N48million pension funds . The SA and other heads of parastatals, the management promised to remit our money within three months, but till date, we have seen nothing.”

“To worsen the situation, the cooperative where the people can easily go for succour, the funds have been withdrawn by the management for reasons best known to it. There is nothing there. What the management is paying as salary aside other contingencies is less than N150 million monthly. The state government gives N125 million monthly as subvention.

“So, by and large, if the management is augmenting our monthly salaries with N25 million, if you multiply N25 million by 12 months, it gives you about N300 million. So, the question is what happens to about N750 million left, since management is accruing over N1 billion as IGR annually?”