By OKEY NDIRIBE
The Federal Government has initiated the installation of an electronic monitoring device to facilitate settlement of death benefit claims of deceased federal civil servants in the country.

This was disclosed Wednesday, in Abuja by the Head of service of the Federation, Alhaji Isa Bello Sali, while delivering his speech at the presentation of insurance death benefit cheques to pension fund administrators to ensure payments to the next of kin of the deceased employees.

He further stated that payment of the death benefits to relatives of the deceased federal employees was in compliance with the provisions of Section 9 (3) of the Pension Reform Act, 2004 which states that “every employer with not less than five employees must insure the lives of the employees to a minimum of three times their total annual emolument and that in the event of death of any of such employees, the next of kin is paid 300 percent of officer’s annual emolument.”

He recalled that the implementation of the scheme was flagged off for Federal Government employees in 2008 with the payment of N4 billion to the appointed consortium of 24 insurance companies for provision of insurance cover for that year, adding a total of 365 death claims amounting to N904.512 million were settled in 2009.

He expressed regret that the scheme has faced some hitches including the refusal of the appointed insurance companies to settle all death claims submitted to them in 2010 under the 2008 cover as they were said to be time-barred, adding that through dialogue and understanding on the part of the insurance companies, an additional 189 death claims amounting to N506, 241,609.85 were paid yesterday.

The HOS further urged the Pension Commission and Pension Fund Administrators to consider how best they could fast-track the payment of these benefits that are meant to alleviate the sufferings of the families of federal civil servants who lost their lives while serving the nation.