Gratuities/pensions: Zulum inaugurates committee to pay Ex-workers in 27 LGs
Borno State Governor Babagana Umara Zulum on Monday inaugurated a 14-member committee that will verify retired workers across of the 27 local government areas of the state in preparation for payment of their pensions and gratuities.
The inauguration took place at the Government House in Maiduguri. The committee is headed a by a seasoned technocrat, Ibrahim Lawalam.
Zulum announced at the event that his government would clear all backlogs of gratuities for workers who retired from 2012 to date.
The governor, in his address, lamented decline in productivity of the workforce.
The local government system has over the years been ineffective in discharging its statutory obligations, Zulum noted.
The governor assured of his administration’s commitment to reversing the situation by making the local government system work again. He
He recalled far-reaching measures put in place, including the setting up of two high-powered verification and biometric data-capture committees, one on local government staff and the other on primary school teachers.
Zulum explained that procedural and administrative challenges in the payment of local government pensioners necessitated the inauguration of the 14-member group to proffer solutions.
He said the committee was set up purposely to determine the number of genuine local government pensioners and the precise corelation between the total number of pensioners and cumulative amount of pension and gratuities owed them.
After ascertaining numbers and figures, the committee is to effect payment of gratuities of cleared pensioners without further, but through a phase-by-phase model.
The governor read out specific six terms of reference to the hearing of the committee thus:
1. “To determine and verify the actual number of genuine pensioners in each local government area and the specific amount of money each pensioner is entitled to;
2. To identify the various challenges associated with the local government pension payment system and how such challenges could be adequately addressed; 3. To examine the current method of payment of local government pensioners and determine its vulnerability to abuse or effectiveness in meeting extant procedural and administrative requirements;
4. To identify the generic problems currently being encountered by local government pensioners in the payment system and how to resolve and forestall these problems;
5. To pay gratuities of pensioners that were hitherto entitled and cleared for payment on sustainable basis without further delay, while the verification exercise is on-going. 6. Any other matter the committee deemed relevant to the above terms of reference”.