Date: 2021-03-27

Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has said it removed no fewer than 20,089 pensioners not verified from its payroll last October.

The directorate added the exercise saved a sum of N750 million monthly pensions for the Federal Government.

Director, Parastatal Pension Department under PTAD Kabiru Yusuf said this in Ilorin, Kwara state capital at the biannual delegate conference of Federal Parastatal and Private Pensioners Association of Nigeria (FEPPAN), Railway branch.

Yusuf added: "When we took over in August 2015 to pay pension of parastatal workers there was no database. We only got names, serial numbers, bank account numbers and monthly pensions from the respective agencies and all those managing the scheme at a time.

"It was on the basis of that that we were getting budgetary provisions from the Federal Government.

"October 2020 we removed those on our payroll that had not been verified. They were about 20,089. Before we did that we notified the unions, the agency and of course the supervising ministry and asked that anyone that has genuine case should forward his or her complaints to the dedicated address we created.

"By that time too we collectively resolved that the time had been sufficient enough time for anybody that had a genuine case to have made himself or herself available for the exercise.

"When we implemented the first phase of the outcome of the verification, we discovered that the monthly pension amount tied to the 20,089 pensioners that we removed was about N750 million.

"That was real savings for government. It means our monthly pension figures reduced by N750 million. And it will only start increasing for any single pensioner that will get back to our payroll based on valid and genuine documentation."

The director said currently the directorate is embarking on mop-up verification exercise of pensioners across the nation.

"The mop-up verification being embarked upon by PTAD for pensioners is essentially designed for those who missed the open field general verification that ran between April and November 2019 across the geo-political zones.

"The mop-up is a function of the invitation we received from pensioners who want to be verified.

"We have done one in our headquarters in Abuja. That dealt with pensioners whose applications we have received and those pensioners are residing in Abuja and the surrounding states. Based on the applications we received in Lagos and some of the states around Lagos our team is currently verifying those pensioners that their documents have been received and reviewed.

"It is our plan to go to all the geo-political zones of the country based on applications too.

"We planned to use the outcome of the verification we did between April and November 2019 to take a decision. Unfortunately, we could not do that because of COVID-19. So we waited and gave opportunity for those who missed the exercise then to come into our offices."