A retired professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Prof. Boniface Oye-Adeniran, has written President Muhammadu Buhari, calling for the sack of current management of the Pension Commission, headed by the Acting Director-General, Aisha Dahir-Umar, for non-performance and delaying payment of retirees.
Prof Oye-Adeniran, who retired from the service of College of Medicine, University of Lagos, also called for a forensic audit of the accounts of PenCom.
In his letter to the President, entitled “Complaint Against the Leadership of PenCom”, a copy of which was made available to The Lagos Time, the professor also pleaded with President Buhari to direct PenCom to pay all retirees, including himslef, all outstanding benefits.
He further urged the President to ask Dahir-Umar to explain the reason for the delay in payment of retirees.
According to him, retirees have to wait for more than a year for their pension benefits to be processed, citing his own case as as example. “I was only informed about my Pension Benefit one year and three months after retirement. I retired on 18 June 2019. I was only informed in September 2020,” he stated.
Oye-Adeniran, who was a former President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) alleged that the PenCom management led by Dahir-Umar were more interested in spending the Pension Fund on themselves than paying the pension benefits of retirees.
He further alleged that PenCom spent N5 billion on salaries of about 380 members of staff within the first eight months of the year 2019; over N731 million was spent on “Capacity Building Costs”, over N1.8 billion was spent on “Operational and Monitoring Expenses”, while over N369 million was spent on “Miscellaneous Expenmses”.
Noting that one of the reasons for “The Pension Reform” was to bring the efficiency of the Commission to the level it was in the early 1960s, when benefits were paid to retirees immediately when they retired, he said “the present leadership has failed to attain the efficiency of the early 60s”.
He alleged that PenCom also does not reply to letter sent to them by Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) and retirees promptly; and that PenCom does not follow its own Guidelines on what is due to a Professor who retired at age 70 years and who was continuously in the employment of the Public University.
He said PenCom offered him a monthly Pension of N213,247.33, instead of his last consolidated monthly salary of N502,913.52, in accordance with sections 1.6.2 and 2.1.1 (i) of the PenCom’s “Guidelines for the Administration of Retirememt Benefits of Professors and A Category of Political Appointees”.
He has rejected the monthly pension offered him by PenCom, insisting on what is truly due to him.
Below is the full text of the letter and other documents attached to it
President Muhammadu BUHARI, GCFR. ufs. Prof. Ibrahim GAMBARI, Presidential Villa, Aso Rock, Abuja. Your Excellency, Complaint Against the Leadership of PenCom. ________________________________ I wish to formally let your goodself know that the leadership and staff of PenCom are more interested in spending the Pension Fund on themselves than paying the Pension benefits of retirees for the following reasons: 1.) Retirees stay more than a year for their Pension Benefits to be processed. The various E-mails below serve as evidence against PenCom. I was only informed about my Pension Benefit one year and three months after retirement. I retired on 18 June 2019. I was informed in September 2020. one of the reasons for "The Pension Reform" was to bring the efficiency of the Commision to the level it was in the early 1960s. Pension benefits were paid to retirees immediately when they retired in the 60s. The present leadership has failed to attain the efficiency of the early 60s. 2.) PenCom does not reply to letters sent to them by the Pension Fund Administrators (PFA's) and retirees promptly - E-mails and letters attached below. My PFA, Pensions Alliance Limited (PAL) wrote to PenCom on 18 September 2020. The Commission has not deemed it fit to reply to the letter to date. I sent an E-mail to PenCom on 7 October 2020. I am yet to receive a reply - The E-mail is shown below. 3.) PenCom does not follow its own Guidelines on what is due to a Professor who retired at age 70 years and who was continuously in the employment of the Public University - PenCom Guidelines attached. I was offered a monthly Pension of N213,247.33 instead of my last consolidated monthly salary of N502,913.52 (Annual Consolidated salary was N6,034,962.24), in accordance with sections 1.6.2 and 2.1.1 (i) of attached PenCom "Guidelines for the Administration of Retirement Benefits of Professors and A category of Political Appointees." 4.) PenCom staff spend Billions of Naira on themselves without any thought of paying retirees promptly their actual dues on retirement. They usually visit the Professors in their respective Universities for verification of their documents one year before their retirement. At retirement PenCom disappears from the radar. PenCom under the present Acting DG was reported on 6th December 2019 to have spent the following amount of money: a.) N5 billion spent on the salaries of about 380 members of staff within the first eight (8) months of the year 2019; b.) N731,477,627.90 spent on ‘Capacity Building Costs’, C.) N1,831,275,331.00 spent on ‘Operational and Monitoring Expenses’, d.) N369,688,000.00 on ‘Miscellaneous Expenses’. Source: https://nairametrics.com/2019/12/06/pencom-boss-queried-for-spending-unapproved-funds-n5-billion-on-380-staff-in-8-month/ e.) Nigeria’s National Pension Commission (PenCom) disclosed that the country’s total pension assets increased to N10.8 trillion as of May 2020, up from N10.6 trillion in April this year. f.) The report, which was published on PenCom’s website, also revealed that the total number of Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders had increased from N8.8 million as it was last reported, to more than 9 million as of May this year. Source: https://nairametrics.com/2020/07/22/pencom-says-nigerias-total-pension-assets-now-stand-at-n10-8-trillion/ Prayers: 1.) In view of the foregoing, I should be grateful if The National Pension Commission (PenCom) would be directed to pay all retirees - including mine - all outstanding pension benefits. 2.) There is a need for a forensic audit of the PenCom Accounts. 3.) The Acting DG should be asked to explain the reason for the delay in payment of the retirees. 4.) It is time to change the non-performing Management. Thank you for your cooperation. "TOWARDS A BETTER SOCIETY." Yours faithfully, Prof. Boniface Adedeji OYE-ADENIRAN, mni (SEC.16, 1994). Retired Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
