The Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service has commenced an inquest into the over N2tn payment by the Federal Government to retirees under the new contributory pension scheme.
The committee, which has been conducting public hearings in the six geopolitical zones of the federation on the administration of pension and the plight of pensioners across the country, is worried that though the amount had been paid by the government on behalf of the pensioners, it has received petitions that many retired workers have yet to get their entitlements.
The Chairman of the committee, Senator Aloysius Etok, said on Monday that although there were uncertainties about the handling of the payment, the committee would not be quick to conclude that there was a fraud.
He said that the committee was inundated with complaints from retired civil servants across the country over the delay in the payment of their retirement benefits.
“The Federal Government has paid about N2tn, but with the complaints we are getting from some retirees, there is a need for the scheme to be investigated in order to establish the facts,” he said.
Atok further said that the committee would determine the actual number of retirees due for payment and the actual number that had been paid.
He also said that the probe would establish whether the money was being collected by real people and how it had been handled so far.
According to him, the committee is concerned about the plight of the retired workers and will, as part of its investigative hearing, work out the best method of running the pension scheme.
Etok explained that the essence of the hearings at the zones was to work out more effective strategies for the disbursement of the pension fund to the retirees.
The lawmaker said, “This committee has also noted with deep concern the complaints and appeals from Nigerians who served during the colonial days as civil servants.
“They had served for years and that should have qualified them for pensions and gratuities, but had their careers terminated as a result of the civil war.
“These pre-civil war civil servants are pleading that those years, in which they meritoriously served the nation before the war, should not be in vain.”
