Senate committee okays PITAD’s 2016 budget implementation

Nigeria Senate.

The Senate Committee on Establishment has expressed satisfaction with the level of implementation of the 2016 budget by the management of Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate.

The Chairman of the committee, Sen. Emmanuel Paulker, said this during an oversight visit to the headquarters of PITAD in Abuja on Tuesday.

N111.99bn was appropriated to PITAD in the 2016 budget.

The amount consisted of N109 1.2bn for the pension, N1.6bn for personnel cost; N1.03bn for overhead and N200m for pensioners verification while no amount was appropriated for capital project.

On the money received by PITAD from the amount appropriated, N82.62bn was released to PITAD from which it had expended N73.32bn.

Paulker and members of the committee requested PITAD to provide relevant documents for clarification on some areas of implementation.

He said the job of PITAD was crucial, noting that the happiness of pensioners on the Defined Benefit Scheme depended on the effectiveness of PITAD in the discharge of its duties.

He urged PITAD to continue to discharge its duty creditably.

Pulker also said that the Senate had approved N27bn in the 2016 budget for the payment of 33 per cent pension arrears for pensioners.

Earlier, the Executive Secretary of PITAD, Mrs. Sharon Ikeazor, said that the completion of the verification of pensioners would enable government to estimate its monthly pension liabilities under the DBS.

She said the completion of the exercise would also help government ascertain its financial savings from pension payments, adding that government would be able to have accurate data and profiles of over 200,00 pensioners .

Ikeazor said that PITAD was talking and resolving pensioners’ complaints by improving on its complaint management system for effective tracking and resolution of complaints.

She said that the directorate had established state offices to ensure that pensioners did not travel far to make complaints.

Ikeazor said that the agency was resolving all issues from verified civil service pensioners in the North West and South-East.

She said that the organisation intended to make payment of all benefits to the group of pensioners verified before continuation of civil service verification in other zones.

On 33 per cent pension payment, she said that PITAD had commenced payment of the increase in October 2014, noting that all arrears for the year were paid in December of same year.

She said that the arrears for 2010 to 2013 remained unpaid as outstanding government liabilities at the end of 2014.

She said that PITAD had been able to offset some 42 months arrears from the pension departments based on available resources.

The secretary said 24 months of the civil service pension department was paid while 18 months remained outstanding.

Ikeazor said 42 months was paid for the Nigeria Customs Service, Immigration and Prison without outstanding arrears.

She said that in the case of the Police Pension department, three months were paid with 39 months of arrears outstanding.

She said that PITAD was committed to ensuring that the entitlements of legitimate pensioners were settled.

(NAN)