THE Federal Government, on Wednesday, said a sum of N1.5 billion had been released to pay all the certified next-of-kin to deceased civil servants, as death benefits.
Permanent Secretary, Service Welfare Office in the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HCSF), Mrs. Didi Walson-Jack made this known in Abuja at the second edition of Permanent Secretary’s quarterly forum with labour leaders in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
She said out of 563 registered death benefits claims of deceased workers next-of-kin, cutting across 166 MDAs, 497 claims have been verified, certified and approved for payment to the tune of N1.3 billion.
The PS explained that the backlog payment which would commence by end of this month, was death benefits for the period not covered by the insurance policy subscribe to by the deceased workers.
According to her, “it is equally important to point out that the sum of N1.5 billion has been released by the Ministry of finance for payment of some of the backlog of death benefits for the period not covered by insurance policy.
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“In order to make payments to deceased Next-of-kin, a service wide verification exercise of backlog of death benefits claims of 563 deceased officers cutting across 166 MDAs was conducted in January 2019, to confirm the veracity of the claim requests submitted by the MDAs.
“After the verification exercise,a total of 497 Next-of-kin of deceased officers have been cleared for payment of N1.3 billion. The payment to beneficiaries is expected to commence before the end of this month,” she stated.
She said the office of the Head of Service has also designed a robust welfare package for civil servants who were still in service.
She added that in realisation that the civil service reforms being championed by the Head of Service would not succeed without incentives and motivation for the workers, the present administration was working out a policy that will guarantee a better reward system for them.
“This cannot be achieved without the use of motivation which ties incentives and rewards to better performance. Pursuant to this laudable initiatives, the service welfare office has submitted a robust proposal for the institutionalisation of a Rewards and Recognition System (R&RS),” she added.
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