Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa said his administration inherited N33 billion pension and gratuity debt from the administration of Emmanuel Uduaghan.
Okowa also disclosed that the state had received a total of N10.9 billion bailout fund for the payment of outstanding workers’ salaries and arrears of local government.
The governor, who assured that money would be set aside to pay pensioners, added that the state commissioner for finance was already looking into the reports with a view to pay some percentage of the money owed the retirees.
According to him, we met a system that had huge arrears of close to N33 billion; a committee headed by the commissioner for finance was looking into that. We hope that within the next few weeks when the committee completes its work we will be able to pay some percentage of the money owed the retirees, he said.
“The state government will soon pay some percentage of pension and gratuity owed retirees after the committee set up to verify the pension arrears completes its work. We agree that pensioners should not be made to suffer. I appeal for your patience, we will do everything necessary to cushion the pains pensioners are going through,” he said.
BusinessDay reports that the governor disclosed this when Delta State chairman of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), Robert Chukwuyem, and members of the union, paid him a courtesy visit in Asaba.
While noting that the “Pay As You Go” (PAYE) scheme was like postponing the evil day, he however noted that the initial teething problems associated with the contributory pension scheme were daunting but not insurmountable.
He opined that the Contributory Pension Scheme was associated with a lot of challenges that had made several states in the country refused to migrate to the scheme because of the complexity.
He noted that if the scheme was implemented fully as it was structured, it would be the best for the nation.
The governor however promised that the state government would pay a percentage of their pension/gratuity within the next few weeks.
Earlier, the chairman of NUP said they were in Government House to discuss the plight of pensioners in the state.
