The House of Representatives on Thursday summoned the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, to appear before it over alleged discrepancies in N33 billion pension deductions remittance by National Pension Commission (PenCom).
The lower chamber of the Legislature also asked the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris, to appear with Emefiele before its Ad-Hoc Committee to investigate the activities of (PenCom) next Tuesday, April 9.
The Chairman of the committee, Hon. Johnson Agbonayinma, who gave the directive at a public hearing on the PenCom activities, said that the invitation was necessary to clarify noticeable discrepancies in the pension deductions claimed to have remitted by the commission.
The lawmaker pointed out that submissions by the CBN Governor and the AGF would guide the committee in making appropriate recommendations on the investigative hearing.
He said: This ad hoc committee invites the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) to appear before it on Tuesday, April 9, to clarify issues surrounding the money claimed to have been remitted by PenCom.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Union of Contributory Pensioners (NUCP) has told the committee that the new pension scheme had compounded, rather than alleviating problems faced by retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
The labour group’s position on the CPS was contained in a memorandum submitted to the Ad -Hoc committee signed by its leaders, Messrs U.C. Ekpo and Emezuru Eugene.
The NUCP linked the challenges in the implementation of the CPS as they relate to pensioners’ plight to some of the faulty provisions of the 2014 Pension Act (as amended).
It stated: “From the look of things, the whole essence of the new pension scheme is to create capital for the Pension Fund Administrators (PFA) to maximise profits and enrich themselves.
”Worse still, PenCom, which is empowered to strictly enforce the Pension Reform Act in regulating the activities of PFAs and Pension Custodians, has become a violator of the same Act in many ways”, the group added.
The union listed some of the alleged unwholesome practices by PenCom as including, lack of review of contributors’ pension every five years as provided in Section 173 (3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
Others are, persistent delays in payment of retirees’ benefits to over 2 years; lack of standardised template and transparency in computation of lump sums paid after retirement; and gender inequality in the payment of lump sums, which they argued, contravenes the Pension Reform Act.
The NUCP further alleged that the anomalies and injustices perpetrated by PenCom in its implementation of the CPS led to suffering, pain and premature death of pensioners.
It charged the commission to confine itself to the performance of its functions as a regulator.
