FG needs N73.09bn to pay 2016 retirees, deceased employees- PenCom

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has revealed that a total of N73.09 billion is required to pay the accrued right of Federal Government’s workers who retired between January to December, 2016 and deceased employees within same period.

This was revealed in the memorandum submitted by the Director General of the Commission, Chinelo AnohuAmazu, to the National Assembly Joint Committee on Appropriations at the budget defence session on the 2017 budget estimates for appropriation yesterday.

The Commission said based on the number of verified and enrolled Federal Government employees that retired from January to December in 2016 under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) as well as deceased employees within 2016, it requested for the provision of the sum of N91.92 billion in the 2016 Appropriation Bill but N50.20 billion was approved, resulting in a shortfall of N41.72 billion

PenCom revealed that out N50.20 of the billion appropriated for the Retirement Benefits Bond Redemption Fund (RBBRF) Account in the 2016 Appropriation Act, only N18.82 billion had so far been released into the RBBRF Account, without an outstanding balance of N31.37 billion yet to be released for 2016.

Anohu-Amazu said based on the number of verified and enrolled employees that will retire from January to December in 2017 under the CPS, PenCom determined and requested for the provision of N113.02 billion in the 2017 FGN Appropriation Bill but the Federal Government submitted only the sum of N50.20 billion in the 2017 Appropriation Bill, thereby resulting in a shortfall of N62.83 billion.

“The most critical challenge of the implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme (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,” she said.