In living up to its mandate, the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has cleared the arrears of 16,210 pensioners with N6.2 billion.
The feat came from an expanded re-validation and re-computation exercise undertaken by PTAD in its efforts to clear all pension arrears and resolve all complaints of underpayments and outstanding gratuities for the civil service pensioners and their Next of Kin (NoK).
PTAD in a statement said the development also aligns with the promise made by its Executive Secretary, Dr. Chioma Ejikeme, at the Directorate’s Press Conference in September, 2020; where she declared a state of emergency on the payment of outstanding entitlements to pensioners. She also set up an expanded project team to ramp up on the computation of benefits for all verified civil service pensioners.
According to the statement, the project is targeted at reducing the number of complaints received by the Directorate on short payments, qualified pensioners not on payroll and other outstanding benefits to the pensioners and the Next of Kin of deceased pensioners.
“During the exercise (September 2020 – March 2021) a total of 46,284 pensioners’ files were reviewed for end to end quality assurance. A total sum of N6.2 billion has been paid as arrears of gratuity, monthly payments and one-off payments to 16,210 Pensioners/Nok that are qualified for the payment after the computation. Over 1,000 qualified pensioners not on payroll post verification have been put on the payroll and their arrears paid.
“A key aspect of the project geared towards continuous resolution of complaints was that it ensured that pensioners who have outstanding documents e.g., bank statements, BVN and other required documents were contacted so as to resolve their complaints effectively.