Ogun government to offset N32.8bn outstanding gratuities, death benefits

ABIODUN JIMOH, ABEOKUTA

Ogun State government has vowed to offset an outstanding sum of N32.8b gratuities and death benefits under its Transition Pension Scheme(TPS).

Also, the state government has paid an average of N791m pensions to retired local government council workers and the State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, retirees monthly.

Mrs. Irene Kokumo, Permanent Secretary, Bureau of Local Government Pensions disclosed this while hosting members of the state House of Assembly Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.

She revealed that the outstanding debt profile was piled up under the previous administration in the state between the month of August, 2011 and June, 2019.

Kokumo, who also spoke at the budget assessment of the bureau, hinted that the scheme is currently catering for a total of 11,616 retirees in the pre-1991 category

The permanent secretary said: “Records from the Bureau showed that the present administration has been facilitating prompt release of retirement savings account balance to retirees who had disengaged from the Contributory Pension Scheme.

“This with a view to ensuring that senior citizens enjoy better life after meritorious years of service to the councils. Apart from the N791m being paid monthly as pensions, the Bureau has also paid N4,6b as monthly pensions between January and June, 2019.

“The Bureau has been effectively managing the benefits of Pay as you Go scheme and the Contributory Pension Scheme. The primary responsibility of the Bureau was that of the pre-1991 retirees, consisting of local government and SUBEB personnel, as well as officials still in active service.

“Other achievements of the Bureau includes: computation and compilation of outstanding gratuities and death pensions till date; maintenance of records of existing pensioners for easy access to retrieve information from computerised filing system; facilitate remittances of contributory pension deductions I’m time, among others.

“The state government is working on the Bureau’s challenges of office renovation and provision of befitting infrastructures, full digitization and computerisation of its activities, and many others.”

In his response, Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Akeem Balogun, applauded the management team for maintaining standard in the discharge of its duties, while tasking the Bureau to come up with strategies that could assist in offsetting the outstanding gratuities of local government councils and SUBEB.