The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) Wednesday commenced the verification of all pensioners of treasury-funded parastatals, agencies and institutions in Ogun state.
PTAD was established by the federal government to address complaints that border on issues such as non-payment of monthly pension, short payment of pension and gratuity, removal of name on pension payment voucher, non-payment of harmonised pension arrears, irregular payment of federal pensions and non-receipt of pension after retirement.
Flagging off the verification exercise, Ogun state office Team Lead, Abubakar Aboki, expressed the directorate’s commitment to restoring the confidence of Nigerians in pension administration.
Aboki said the exercise would cover a total of 270 agencies, including federal universities, polytechnics, teaching hospitals, medical centres and, even, defunct institutions.
He disclosed that about 2,000 retirees would be captured in the state’s exercise, adding that similar verification was ongoing in neighbouring states of Oyo and Osun.
He said the verification was necessitated by the need to biometrically capture all bonafide pensioners and obtain relevant documentation and service records required for accurate and timely computation and payment of pension benefits.
He explained that on completion of the exercise, PTAD would build a credible database for all pensioners of treasury-funded agencies.
Aboki said, “This exercise is a milestone in the pension administration. What we try to do is to ensure that all pensioners that are eligible to receive pensions after serving their fatherland are put on the payroll and also ensure that each pensioner receives what is due to him.
“Basically, what we have done is to ensure that there is no third party verification. You must appear in person and where you would not be able to appear in person, we would do what is called mobile verification where we visit you in the homes and hospitals.
“Prior to now, we inherited the payroll of all the agencies. But right now, we need to check that all the people that are paid are alive and receive what is due to them. So, we are trying to ensure that we build a credible database and also compute what is due to the pensioners.”
Speaking on how the directorate had been able to tackle “ghost pensioners” and corrupt practices, Aboki said PTAD was doing its best by ensuring that there is no third party verification.
