National Assembly Joint Committee on Establishment and Public Service investigating the administration of pensions scheme received testimonies from former Head of Service, Mr. Steven Oronsaye, on how officials fraudulently denied pensioners their dues.

Following the testimonies, the committee promptly summoned former Heads of Service, Ms. Amal Pepple and Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, to appear before it today to explain how the pension scheme was managed under them.

Oronsaye told the committee that government officials falsified documents to siphon pension fund from the Federal Government coffers.

Oronsaye said during his tenure he discovered that pension fraud was being perpetrated from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, saying that the those involved were “disbanded, but they are now back to the office.”

He said, “There was a document presented to me on death benefit, the photograph was quite different from the name because I know the person bearing that name.

“There are many of such forged documents; that was why I introduced the biometric exercise and until we have people of integrity, the problem with the administration of pension fund will still continue.

“We discovered that there are people retired in the 60s that are not paid. There were people who came with fake documents during biometric exercise. Until we purge the system there is nothing we can do.”

He added, “The quest for selective payment did not arise during my tenure. When I resumed office the first few files that came to my table were on payment, I was not persuaded by request because it was not in order. If I did that, the genuine pensioners will suffer. The figure kept coming, I was not satisfied in good conscience.

“There is this erroneous impression that the Federal Government will contribute five per cent to the pension fund. This is not correct. It is the responsibility of states and local governments to take care of their pensioners. The Federal Government just wants to be like a big father to support. This was just the circular not a law; from the beginning the circular was clear.”

The committee was however critical of the task force set up by Oronsaye as HOS to look into the pension administration without any timeline to end its work.

Meanwhile, the committee called on the Rivers State Government to clear the outstanding pensions arrears of N1bn due to its pensioners.

Chairman of the Joint Committee, Aloysius Etuk, said the amount should not pose any difficulty to the state.

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