Ebere Nwoji
The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) said it has resolved to remove 21,227 unverified parastatal pensioners from its payroll.
PTAD, said this will take effect from October 2020.
It said already, the list of the affected pensioners had been given to the pension unions, associations, agencies and institutes since July 2020 for dissemination and sensitisation of their members and to give a feedback to the directorate.
According to PTAD, the list of those affected can also be found on its website.
The Executive Secretary, PTAD, Dr. Chioma Ejikeme, who disclosed this in a statement, explained that the affected pensioners are those that did not turn up for the directorate’s 2019 nationwide and in-house verification exercises.
She said they neither submitted documentary request for mobile verification nor registered as diaspora pensioners.
According to her, in 2019, a well-publicised verification exercise for all federally funded parastatals, agencies and institutes under the Defined Benefit Scheme was conducted throughout the six geo-political zones of the country including Lagos and Abuja, adding that conducive centres located at strategic and accessible locations were provided to carry out the exercise for an average period of two weeks.
According to her, a total of 32 centres were provided for the exercise which ran from April to November, 2019.
“During the programme that lasted for many months, the National Assembly, especially House Committee on Pension and Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service provided legislative oversight support throughout the exercise.
“The pension unions were also part of the stakeholders that mobilised and monitored their members for the exercise. Furthermore, government anti-fraud agencies such as EFCC, ICPC, DSS and Police Force were on ground to monitor and provide support for the exercise.”
Ejikeme, said at the end of the verification exercise, a total of 76,064 parastatals pensioners were verified and documented.
She added that the directorate organised a further mop-up verification exercise, through continuous in-house verification for those that could not be verified during the field exercise in PTAD offices in Lagos and headquarters, Abuja where a total of 3,150 additional pensioners were verified and documented.
“Documented diaspora pensioners and pensioners who requested for mobile verification, but have not yet been verified, have also been added to the documented pensioners pending when it would be convenient for them to be verified,” she added.
According to her, after one year of the completion of the exercise, it would be logical to remove those that could not be verified and documented in order for the directorate to maintain a credible payroll.
“A total of 21,227 names are to be removed from the payroll with effect from October 2020.
However, in view of the Covid-19 lockdown, PTAD has released some guidelines which bonafide pensioners amongst the identified 21,227 pensioners with authentic documents should follow to ensure that their names are not removed from the payroll,” she said.
