The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria has called on the Federal Government to urgently release its counter-part funds to the National Pension Commission so that thousands of retired public servants can be paid their entitlements.
The Secretary-General of the group, Alade Lawal in a statement on Thursday, noted that the failure of the government to release the funds to PENCOM had made it difficult for the agency to remit retirees’ benefits to their respective Pension Funds Administrators.
The ASCSN threatened that if the Federal Government failed to release the fund, it would initiate other trade union actions to force the government to do the needful.
According to him, the retirees affected were those who had put in several years in service before the 2004 Pension Reform Act was promulgated.
Lawal said, “After the Contributory Pension Scheme was introduced in 2004, public servants who have served for years before the new law came into existence were expected to have their pension bonded so that Government will release same to PENCOM to pay them on retirement.
“But for inexplicable reasons, the Federal Government has refused to remit the bonded pension to PENCOM and as a result, thousands of public servants who served the country meritoriously for years have not been paid their pension benefit afters retirement especially in the last one year.”
“It is indeed baffling that hard working public servants who have devoted their productive years serving the country for 35 years or attained 60 years of age while in service are being denied their legitimate benefits,” he added.
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