Plateau Govt Expends N4.7bn On Gratuities, Pensions

The Plateau Government says it has expended more than N4.7 billion on the payment of gratuities and pensions to its retirees between June 2007 and May 2011.

The Executive Chairman, Plateau State Pension Board, Mr James Kumbin, told newsmen in Jos that N3.29 billion was paid as gratuity to 5,404 retirees during the period.

Kumbin said that N1.64 was also paid as pension to 5,341 retirees, who are on the state government’s payroll during the same period.

He said, “We have earmarked the sum of N1.2 billion and N1.8 billion for the payment of pensions and gratuities respectively for the 2011.”

The chairman commended the effort of the present administration in the state government for responding promptly to the plights of the retirees.

He explained that the state still operated the old pension scheme because the bill for the contributory pension scheme was yet to be passed by the State House of Assembly.

Kumbin regretted that no amount had been released for the payment of arrears of the 142 per cent pay rise approved by the Federal Government in 2000 for pensioners.

He said that some of the challenges facing the board included the verification and removing the names of dead pensioners from the list.

The chairman said that the next of kin of dead pensioners found it difficult to notify the board of such deaths.

He said that another challenge was the delay in placement of retirees on a monthly pension and the payment of all outstanding pension arrears and gratuities.

The chairman called on all pensioners to ensure that they were captured in the board’s bio-metric data for prompt payment of their pensions, which he said would now be done through banks.