BY VICTOR YOUNG

…As directorate clears retired para-military pensioners’ 24 months arrears

No fewer than 250,000 pensioners of the Defined Benefits Scheme, DBS, are currently on the payroll of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate, PTAD.

This is as PTAD has cleared the 24 months arrears to the Parastatals Pension Department, the Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pension Department and the Police Pension Department.  

Though, according to Vanguard’s checks, while verified retirees of the DBS join PTAD on regular basis, some of them also leave the payroll on regular basis especially through death.

An official of PTAD who spoke to Vanguard said: “As at today, plus or minus, we have about 250,000 pensioners on PTAD payroll.”

PTAD  is an agency of the Federal Government established in August 2013 in compliance with the provisions of Section 30 sub-section (2) (a) of the Pension Reform Act, PRA of 2004 (amended in 2014) which stipulated the establishment of an independent pension department for the Public Service of the Federation.

The Directorate is made up of the following departments (Section 43 (3) of the Pension Reform Act): The Civil Service Pension Department, CSPD, the Police Pension Department, PPD, the Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pension Department, CIPPD, the Treasury Funded Parastatals Pension Department, PaPD, and The Pensioner Support Services Department, PSSD.

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 Meanwhile, the Directorate has completed payment of the 24 months arrears to the Parastatals Pension Department, The Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pension Department and the Police Pension Department.

PTAD Executive Secretary, ES, Dr Chioma Ejikeme, who spoke at a PTAD forum in Gombe, among others, said “Following the increment made to salaries of some Federal Government employees in 2019 as a result of the review of the National Minimum Wage, a committee was set up by the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission, NSIWC, to review the pension and come up with an appropriate and realistic measure to increase the amount paid as pension to pensioners under the Defined Benefit Scheme.

“In May 2021, we got approval from Mr. President for the implementation of the upward review and we commenced payment immediately. We have successfully completed payment of the 24 months arrears to the Parastatals Pension Department, The Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pension Department and the Police Pension Department.  The balance of three months arrears for the Civil Service Pension Department would be defrayed very soon.

“Bearing in mind that some of our pensioners missed the field verification exercises previously conducted by PTAD across all operational departments due to one reason or another, PTAD embarked on a mop-up verification across the six geopolitical zones.  We have gone to the South-South, where we had centres in Benin and Uyo, North-West in Kaduna and Sokoto, South-East in Enugu and Umuahia, North-East in Yola and Maiduguri, South-West in Ibadan and Akure, and Lagos State. We intend to visit other geopolitical zones in due course and ensure that all eligible pensioners are duly captured and placed on our payroll.

“I also wish to use this opportunity to inform you all that our quest to recover the pension assets with some insurance underwriters has been yielding some positive results.  We have fully recovered the pension assets with two insurance underwriters, namely: AIICO Insurance Plc, and African Alliance Insurance PLC.

The icing on the cake was the receipt of the repatriated sum of twenty-six million, five hundred and five thousand, eight hundred and sixty-two pounds, ninety-seven pence (£26,505,862.97) from the United Kingdom, which were pension funds under investment with Crown Agents Investment Management Limited, United Kingdom. The funds have been used to settle the liabilities of the defunct agencies I earlier mentioned.

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