MAY 30, 2018 – Federal Government retirees have accused Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) of sabotaging the 2004 Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
They also took a swipe at the PFAs who are the custodians of the pensions contributed by civil servants before retirement, for flouting the directives of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), the regulatory body set up by government to supervise PFAs.
The 2004 pension scheme is a fall-out of a major reform of the nation’s old pension system (Defined Benefit Scheme) that had sent hundreds of retired workers to their untimely graves because of unpaid years of backlog of gratuities and pensions.
To put an end to needless deaths of pensioners, particularly those in the queue to collect their benefits after serving their fatherland for 35 years, the Federal Government introduced the CPS.
Under the scheme, the government deducts 7.5 per cent from workers’ salaries monthly and remits to the PFAs directly, while it contributes 7.5 per cent which it remits in arrears after workers’ retirement in form of “intervention’’.
For instance, the President Muhammadu Buhari administration had in April 2017, released about N54 billion to PenCom to transfer to PFAs to settle arrears of gratuities and pensions for retirees of 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 and subsequently, monthly releases of some millions.
