Gov Nwifuru Recieve Report On LGAs Staff Pension Status

By Celestine Okeh, Abakaliki

Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru of Ebonyi State on Friday, recieved report on the status of retirees benefits of the 13 LGAs of the state, assuring that he will look into the report with the view of offsetting the backlog  of retirement benefits of the senior citizens.

The governor revealed his intention to engage external auditors to audit the board for optimum performance.

Presenting the report, the Executive Secretary, Ebonyi State Local Government Staff pension Board, Mr Emeka Nwoñu said, the breakdown of the retirees' unpaid benefits showed that the initial pension arrears stand at N648,710,046.98, while the unpaid gratuity stood at N6,956,264,912.02. 

He said the unpaid death benefits (arrears) for the deceased workforce is N746,948,420.76 but the unpaid death benefits (Gratuity) is N673,150,046.44 and the total stands at the sum of N9,025,073,426.20bn.

He disclosed that over 6,055 local government retirees are awaiting unpaid retirement benefits. 

According to Nwonu, 4,920 of the retirees are still alive whereas 1,135 of them had died.

"Your Excellency, I am here with the report of my findings for official presentation to you. But summarily, we have a total of 4920 pensioners alive awaiting their unpaid retirement benefits while 1135 are dead but owed retirement benefits," he said.

Governor Nwifuru commended the Executive Secretary of the Board, Emeka Nwonu for taking proactive steps to reposition the board and for coming up with the report in less than three weeks of assumption of duty, which the Governor said, others could not achieve in the years past.

Governor Nwifuru advised retiring civil servants to strive to process their retirement papers on time to enable them to collect their benefits immediately after retirement.

"Payment of gratuities is now every month, if you have not been paid pension, you will not be qualified to receive gratuity. Therefore I advise you to always proceed on 3 months retirement leave to enable you to process your papers so that you will be paid immediately. We are not interested in owning," the governor said.