FG retirees owed N73bn in 2016 – PenCom

Federal Government workers who retired between January and December 2016 are being owed N73.1 billion; the National Pension Commission (PenCom) document has shown.

The figure was contained in memorandum submitted by PenCom to the National Assembly Joint Committee on Appropriations at the budget defence session on the 2017 budget.

The document showed that the outstanding is posing challenge for the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) in Nigeria.

“The most critical challenge of the CPS in Nigeria today is the non-payment of retirement benefits of Federal Government employees who retired in 2016 due to insufficient appropriation and late release of appropriated funds for payment of accrued pension rights” the document indicated.

It said number “based on of verified the and enrolled Federal Government employees that retired from January to December in 2016 under the CPS as well as deceased employees within 2016, PenCom requested for the provision of the sum of N91.9 billion in the 2016 FGN Appropriation Bill.”

“However, the National Assembly approved only the sum of N50 billion, thereby resulting in a shortfall of N41.7 billion. Furthermore, out of the N50billion appropriated for the Retirement Benefits Bond Redemption Fund (RBBRF) Account in the 2016 Appropriation Act, only N18.8billion had so far been released into the RBBRF Account as at date. This leaves an outstanding balance in the sum of N31.3 billion yet to be released for 2016” the document showed.

The Joint Committee on Appropriations is requested to consider and ensure the appropriation and release of the sum of N73 billion to pay January to December 2016 retirees of the Federal Government.