NUPTE urges govt to pay pension arrears

THE National President of National Union of Postal and Telecommunication Employees (NUPTE),Sunday Alhassan, has appealed tothe Federal Government to pay the 2011 arrears of pensions to NIPOST pensioners.Alhassan made theplea in aninterview with the News Agency of Nigeria yesterday, in Abuja.'Thearrears of pensions from January to December 2011 arestill pendingwith the Federal Government, so we are pleadingwiththe governmentto clear the arrears within theshortest period of time.'The Pension Boardhad alreadygiventhe Office of the Accountant-General the cost of the arrears and we expect that if the money isreleased, all these issues would be resolved.''On May 22, the Senate gave the Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) a seven-day ultimatum to pay into the account of the Pension Board of Trustees of the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) the sum of N220 million.Alhassan said that the insurance company, IGI,recently released about N110 millionandNIPOST, being mindful of theagonyits retired workerswere going through, decided to lend theboard additional N65 million.The union leader saidIGI also provided N45 million,making itN220 million for thepayment of the pension arrears.'All payments concerningpensions are handled centrally by the Office of the Head of Service andpayment is done from the Office of the Account-General of the Federation.'Oncemoney is released from the Federal Government for the purpose of payment of the pensions, the money is given to the underwriters.'Pension payment is not done by the management of any organisation where the workers retired. It isdone directly by the Federal Government.'Whenever the Accountant-General's office releases money to the underwriters, there is a period that they have to remit the money to NIPOST Pension Board account before they can remit it to the retirees.
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