Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) returns has confirmed the non-remittance of over N3.4 billion by some states- amount deducted from their workers’ salaries, the National Pension Commission (PenCom) has disclosed.
The acting Director-General of the Commission, Mrs. Dahir-Umar, gave the hint in her keynote address at the Second Quarter Consultative Forum for states in Lagos.
According to her the affected employees are on the payroll of unnamed state governments.
Represented by Deputy General Manager (DGM), States Operations Department, Dr. Dan Ndackson, the PenCom DG urged the participants at the forum to treat uncredited remittances as a major item as it denies employees the investment income that should have accrued to them.
Dahir-Umar also disclosed that returns submitted to the Commission by the PFAs showed that over N8.09 billion was remitted to them as pension contributions of state employees in the first quarter of the year.
She said over 38 per cent of the uncredited remittances had been outstanding for over one year.
Lauding some states that have collaborated with the commission in implementing the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) but however expressed concern over Rivers and Zamfara states for introducing pension laws that are not in tandem with the philosophy of the CPS despite the Commission’s advice.
She said, “We are also pleased to note the giant stride taken by the Benue State government recently by enacting the Benue State Pension Reform Law 2019, in May 2019″.
“Besides joining the league of States that have commenced the process of implementing the CPS, the Benue State Law incorporated all the observations made by the Commission in the draft Bill before passage into law. We are therefore confident that with this sound and sustainable legal framework in place, Benue State’s implementation would not face major challenges”.
“We have also noted the re-enactment of the Rivers State Pension Reform Law 2019, which repealed the Rivers State Pension Reform Law 2012 as well as the Zamfara State Contributory Pension Scheme Board Law 2019, which established a Contributory Defined Benefits Scheme.
“While states are at liberty to come up with their own pension laws, the Commission is, however, concerned that despite the collaboration with the Commission, several provisions of the pension laws of these two States’ laws that were not in tandem with the philosophy of the CPS were retained despite the Commission’s advice.”
She stressed that the key objective of the CPS is to ensure that all workers receive their retirement benefits as and when due.
