THE Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has decried a report that it paid N900 million into private accounts in three months.
A statement by the management PTAD read, “For the record, PTAD, as a wholly treasury-funded agency, pays over N9 billion monthly into the individual pension accounts of about 220,000 pensioners of the federal civil service, Police, Customs, Immigration and Correctional Services and treasury-funded parastatals as pension and has continued to make sure that every pensioner receives their pension entitlements, like unpaid arrears, subject to the validation of their claims and availability of funds from the Federal Government.
“It should also be clearly noted that PTAD pays pension entitlements into individual pensioners’ accounts and not corporate accounts or joint accounts in line with extant pension laws.
“The private individual accounts listed in the report do not belong to PTAD staff or any government official but belong to verified pensioners from the civil service and parastatals pension departments on PTAD database who, after verification and re-validation of the pensioners’ career documents, were paid their pension arrears for the period owed.
“However, in line with the security, data and privacy protection, PTAD does not publish private details of our pensioners or of monthly pension or accumulated pension payments made to pensioners.
“Finally, we would like to enjoin all pensioners, the pensioners’ union and all other related stakeholders, including the media, to continue to work with the directorate towards ensuring that the Defined Benefit Pension Scheme of the Federal Government continues to benefit all eligible pensioners in a fair and equitable manner as envisioned by the founding fathers that initiated the reforms of the pension sector that led to the establishment of PTAD and brought in the positive changes and outcomes that have been achieved over the last 10 years.”
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