From Wilson Okereke, Afikpo
No fewer than 1,135 retired dead workers in the local government system and Universal Basic Education Board in Ebonyi State have not been paid their retirement benefits.
Executive Secretary, local government staff pension board in the state, Emeka Nwonu disclosed this during a courtesy visit to Governor Francis Nwifuru in his office.
He noted that 4920 retired workers in the system and UBEB who were still alive had not also been paid their benefits.
Nwonu said: “Your Excellency may recall that it was on Thursday,18th January, 2024 that you graciously 2024,one week after my inauguration due to some hitches which Your Excellency might be aware of.
“During my inauguration, Your Excellency charged me in line with the policy thrust of your administration which is anchored on “The People’s Charter of Needs to go to the board and do total transformation of the area.
as a critical and significant agency of government that takes care of our senior citizens who have meritoriously served our dear state at the local government levels and UBEB without being given their retirement benefits.
“You Excellency frowned at the decadent situation of the board and the conditions of the retirees who are yet to get their retirement benefits and reiterated the readiness and willingness of your people-oriented administration to pay them, and directed me to verify the extant pensions and gratuities as owed to them, engage professionals in auditing, to do thorough auditing of the board, all in a view to profiling and processing the pensioners for immediate payments of their benefits.
“In compliance to your directive Your Excellency, immediately I assumed duty, I had interactive meeting with the staff of the board where I got briefings from each of them on the situations of things in the board and had a separate and interactive meeting with the principal officers of the board where they gave me detailed briefings on the states of affairs currently in the board.
“I interacted individually with the principal officers with a view to finding out vital pieces of information, and made some consultations for fact findings from relevant agencies and stakeholders, all in a bid to ensuring a prospective and successful profiling and processes of payment of initial pensions and gratuities to the deserved pensioners.
“Your Excellency, I am here with the report of my findings for official presentation to you. But summarily, we have a total of 4920 pensioners alive awaiting their unpaid retirement benefits while 1135 are dead but owed retirement benefits.
“The breakdown of their unpaid benefits are as follows: the initial pension arrears stands at N648,710,046.98, unpaid gratuity is N6,956,264,912.02, Unpaid death benefits (arrears) is N746,948,420.76 and Unpaid death benefits (Gratuity) is N673,150,046.44. Grand total is N9,025,073,426.20bn”, he told the governor.
Governor Nwifuru advised retiring civil servants to endeavour to process their retirement papers on time to enable them to collect their benefits immediately after retirement.
“Payment of gratuities is now on monthly basis, if you have not been paid pension, you will not be qualified to receive gratuity.
“Therefore, I advise you to always proceed on 3 months retirement leave to enable you process your papers so that you will be paid immediately. We are not interested in owning,” he said.