We Have President''s Mandate To Reform All Pension OfficesAbdulrasheed Maina, chairman of the Pension Reform Task Force, spoke to ABOSEDE MUSARI in Abuja on the controversies trailing the pension scheme, including the actual number of eligible retirees and the amount of pensions paid to them over the years and what his task force has achieved and why the Senate committee 'indicted' him.COULD you tell us what your duties are at the Task Team 'My team, which is the presidential task team on pension reform, was designed to, among other things, ensure seamless payment of pension payment benefits to retirees of the Federal Government under the civil service and public service.It is to also ensure that we develop an e-pension platform that will house all the pensioners in this country; to develop a database and have it on a common platform so that all pensioners' information and data will be on that platform.Also, for us to ensure that all those that have not been paid their pension, and those that have been omitted from the pension list are brought backon board and to restructure the pension administration in the country.This is exactly what the presidential task team is all about.Could you give a recap of what you've done in the last one year 'To be honest, to give you a recap will mean to stay and talk to you for days. When we came on board, we designed a system. Hitherto our coming, they had 36 processes. From when a serving officer retires to when he is paid his gratuity and pension, he goes through 36 different processes.Often times, people retire and go home for years without even collecting their pension or gratuity; and we found out that so many people who retired 1975, 1974, 1972 up to the time we came in 2010 had never been enrolled for pension.Because part of our job is to restructure the pension system in the country, we now lookedat the those elements that are contained in the law and those that are contained in the things like financial regulations and others and then discarded all the man-made processes ' those processes that were created in those offices for their convenience or for whatever reason.Now, we have only five processes and they make it easier for pensioners to be paid. From the time somebody retires under the old scheme to the time he's paid is 24 hours. If you go to our website, you will get what I am talking about.You can go online on our website and tell us this is what your problem is and within three hours, somebody will reply and tell you this is what your problem is and this is the document required of you to send or attach and send to us.We went out for biometric enrollment exercise throughout the 36 States of the federation, including the FCT and out ofthe list of 141,000 pensioners they gave to us, and out of the 258,000 names that the then staff of the pension departmentof the Head of Service Office had sent to the Budget Office, while the budget office usually sent about N5.1 billion monthly, we found out that only 70,657 were eligible.That caused a serious concern to us because atthe Budget Office, we have a list of 258,000 retirees and at the Office of the Head of Service, we have a list of 141,000 but when we went out physically to see these pensioners, to capture their biometrics, we realised that only 70,619 were eligible. And then, the cost of paying the eligible pensioners came down to N807 million.So, one wonders what has been happening to N4.1 billion per month because the 71,133 are not genuine pensioners; they have been arrested by the EFCC. So many of them are hired to send pension into their accounts; later on, they will take 10 per centand return the remaining to the Office of the Head of Service pension department.We got out all those names and we said anybody who thought he's a genuine pensioner and felt that his name had been removed should come forward. We still went again to the States for another 14 days but nobody had come forward till today.We were also able to bring on board 44,320 eligible old men and women, who worked tirelesslyfor this country for 35 years, retired andnever enjoyed any pension benefits. We brought them on board and paid them their arrears during the time of Oronsaye as Head of Service. Those arrears amounted to about N4.3 billion. Now, we have what we can call a database that has integrity and genuine.We also found that there were pensioners that were not supposed to be receiving pensions under the Head of Service Office.For example, we found pensioners receiving from the University of Jos, the Plateau State Government and then from the Office of the Head of Service: three places. We said no, they were not supposed to be collecting pensions from the Head of Service.We had judicial officers, who were collecting pensions under the Head of Service and we moved them to the National Judicial Council.We had university lecturers receiving pensions here. Most of them didn't know; they thought the Head of Service is the mother of all but some knew and only wanted to take advantage of two or three places.Also, let me give you an example of one bank when we brought out these 171,133 fake or ghost pensioners; I don't want to mention the bank. We had one pensioner who had 555 accounts in one bank;there is a connivance with the bank, obviously. And every month, money goes into all these 555 accounts ' pension accounts ' and he mops it, takes his percentage and moves this money back to those that were stealing money.Some of these people had been arrested by the EFCC and had made a lot of recoveries from them.So far, the EFCC had confiscated 187 properties. The task team has recovered N181.6 billion to the Nigerian government. This is the first time in the last 44 yearswhen you find a government pushing us to ensure that all pensioners are paid. He (President Goodluck Jonathan) said make sure you go to all the nooks and crannies of all pension offices and ensure that all pensioners are paid.So, you have the president's mandate to restructure all pension offices'Yes. To ensure that all these pension offices are restructured and to block all loopholes, otherwise known ashoney wells for some people.Another thing wedid was;we found out that they were stealing money through cloning of files. One pensioner's files will be cloned into 10 or 15 files; so, they will pay the gratuity, which is so much and they will continue to pay pension.We have this document management system and we scanned all the files into soft format. We have the biometrics that is integrated with the data; there is no way somebody can go and clone these files.We have opened portals for security agenciesto view. For instance, if we have 130,000 pensioners under the Head of Service and tomorrow somebody goes in to add 200, theEFCC will see it;the ICPC will see it; the SSS will see it and then they will raise the red flagand come and make some arrests.If you pay some money over and above what is being paid monthly, somebody will look at it. That is the system we are trying to institutionalise. We need to develop in this country.In developed countries, they have what is called Social Security System. Now, the Constitution allows for the Pension Allocation Fund to be invested and it will help the pensioners and so many jobs will be created, as these pensioners have children who want jobs.So many pension offices are hiding money in different banks; the money will stay 3, 4, 5years and nobody is touching that money. Then, when you come there as a task team and say you must mop up such fund, somebody will say that you are spoiling the system for them. But so long as the pensioner is happy, I'm happy.DESPISE these achievements you have enumerated, the Senate report on pensions has indicted the task team of fraud. Is the Senate wrong in that respect'I don't know if l am accused of fraud or not but I think the Senate committee has grossly been misled. That is what I will say. I have seen the report and l can tell that the report contains false allegations.The task team does not approve any money.For example, l saw on one page that the task team approved a contactbetween 2006 to February 2010 worth N1.7 billion. But the task team wasn't created then. Those are the problems we came in to sanitise.That tells you that somebody didn't do his job very well. Somebody said in the report that we didn't have a letter appointing us. So, are we military officers with guns coming in to force ourselves into office'The other issue iswe don't even have an account; there is no such account called Pension Reform Task Team Account. If we need to buy stationery and our work tools, we will write to the Head of Service that we need this and that, and the Head of Service is the one that will approve and they will now say this is the biro.We don't have money in the task team. In the last two years, nobody has paid us any kobo as our sitting allowance; nobody has given me money to buy fuel.You mean you are not being paid. How do you work'This is an ad-hoc assignment. I have an office where I work. My office is at Customs, Immigration, Prison Pension Service; that is where my salary is being paid. But I was asked toalso take up this responsibility.I am supposed to be paid my sitting allowances for all these meetings we have been doing, including hazard allowance because the job we are doing is so hazardous. Attempts had been made on my life three times.Nobody has given us money but somebody went and brought falsified documents to the committee and went in and gave the committee false information and the committee sat down on it.The cabal that we got arrested will fight us. Those people will find their way into the Senate and pollute their minds. The former director at the Head of Service pension office, Dr. Sanni Shauibu, was invited to the Senate committee,somebody who was remanded in the Kuje prison.They invited him to the Senate committee and he was even treated as if he was a member of the committee. We that got these people were treated as the criminals. I was never given the opportunity totell the committee what I needed to say.Let me tell you, the President of the Senate is somebody I hold in high esteem. That is not the job he asked them (committee) to do. Because it was the job of the task team that alerted the Senate, he told them to go in and do a probe. He told them to go in and see how to restructure the system. Nobody told them (committee) to go and witch-hunt an individual.If you look at the report, my name was mentioned 50 times. I have only succeeded in restructuring and plugging loopholes and that pensioners are paid as at when due.Look at the advantage of this e-pension smartcard. Mr. President said, 'look, I don't like pensioners suffering and dying because they have to go for verification exercise every three months. Many of them are dying in the queues.'We sat down and developed the e-smartcards.The pensioners will now receive SMS alerts. We have moved the machines to their senatorial districts so that people do not have to travel more than 50 kilometres.When you come in, you slot your card in at your leisure because the system will give you 14 days grace. Not all will go on the same day; each person has a different maturity date. You go at your own leisure, slot in your card and you put your fingerprint. The information hits the database and you are verified.If the pensioner dies, the son cannot pick the card because the fingerprint will not qualify him.Government will save money there. Government will save about N42 billion annually that it expends on all pension offices for the purpose of carrying out these verification exercises.On the pensioners' side, you realise that the pensioners will not suffer untold hardship. Because of that, people accused us that we are trying to stop them from enjoying.'I Want An Institution ThatWill Pay My Pension AndMy Children's Pensions'THE House of Representatives Committee and the Senate Committee seem to be at opposing ends concerning your integrity as a task team. What does that tell you'The House went out to do a job with an open mind. They went on their own to verify what we have done in the Diaspora. One day, I put on the NTA and pensioners surrounded the committee during their visit abroad.A week later, the House commended us.These are people that did their work with an open mind. Maybe there is a misconception out there.We don't keep the money that we have recovered.Where do you keep it'There is what we call Pension Arrear Account in the CBN under the control of the Accountant General of the Federation.The task team does not keep the money.Maybe there is a misconception out there that the task team has a lot of money. We don't control any money. If somebody pushes me, I will go to any length. And let me tell you, I have not talked yet. Maina willspeak at the right time.Right now, I am restraining myself from talking but I'm not threatening anybody. You will then know that some people do not have this country at heart. I'm watching things.I will not waiver; I will not be shaken. This is a job I'm doing for my fatherland. If somebody comes in, believing that he had sat with a cabal, and says my job is finished, I will fight till the last drop of my blood.My father passed away in 2001. My brothers and me are the next of kin. Nobody paid his death benefits. Now, I'm paying in phases and I don't even know my father's file number. I have never asked for that file number. We are paying in batches until it reaches his file. That'show we should work as Nigerians like it happens in other countries. When you are asked to go in a queue, please, go in a queue.If the Senate committee wants to do the right thing, my task team is still ready to work with them. I think they are misled because I have not been given the opportunity to state the other side of the story.Is there something, outside of what we have fielded so far, that you will like the public to know regarding the foregoing issues'Aside from the e-pension card for the Customs, Immigration and Prison Pension Services, the card for the Department of State Services (DSS) is also ready. That is the only pension office I have been and found that they don't have enough funds; they have so many liabilities. And I think we have to work on that to tell the government to fund that office.The Senate committee report said the DSS has N23 billion meanwhile what they have is N7 billion, which is not even enough for them to settle their liabilities. That means somebody must have gone to give false information.That is what I'm saying: that we should build this country. I believe in doing my job whether somebody says thank youor not. Nobody has said thank you.I should mention though that I have got commendations from the Civil Society, NGOs, but nobody in government has said thank you to me. I'm in the office of the Head of Service, but nobody has said thank you to me. I have got awards from private organisations but not from any authority in government.I'm not after that though. What I want is to leave behind an institution that will ensure that mychildren's pensions are paid, not just my own. I want to leave a legacy, an institution that will not allow people to steal money.'Corruption Will Fight You Anywhere, Even In The Senate'WHAT would you have told the Senate if it had given you the opportunity to say what you needed to'If they had invited us when they were going round the country, they would have produced the best report because we would have given them all the information they needed.When we were asked to go to the Police Pension Office for biometrics enrollment, none of the presidential task team members traveledabroad. Afolabi approved money for traveling; his name was there and somebody accused me of using Afolabi's name to take money.When we went to Police Pension for biometrics, we captured 366 pensioners New York alone; we captured 157 in London and 169 in Atlanta. And they said I captured only 11 pensioners. These records are here.When I entered the Police Pension and said I wanted to be receiving SMS alerts, I found out they were stealing N300 million daily. I moved the account back to Abuja from Lagos. Immediately, we sent a note to the Accountant General's office for approval to open two accounts.I realised that the actual liability for the Police Pension was N3.4 billion. I also realised they had earlier requested for N24 billion from the government, which gave the money to them. That was why they could steal N300 million everyday.Because of bureaucracy, before the response from the Accountant General could come, I asked the banks to move the funds to an account where I would be in controland my former Head of Service, Afolabi, said I should stop; that he was posting somebody. I said I would not stop restructuring because people were stealing money and I would not allow it.Now, they told the Senate committee that I opened an account in my brother's name and put N88 billion. The same person (who revealed this to the committee) is a signatory to that account. He came back 40 days after to say the same account belongs to the Police Pension.The issue is that when you fight corruption, it fights back (is real). Corruption will go into Senate, and everywhere to fight you because these people have a lot of money that they stole from the government.We learnt a Commissioner of Police was involved in all this'I think they said a Deputy Commissioner.Who is he'I don't know his name.This is Nigeria for you. We want to make the system work but some people are trying to pull these things down. But we are the youths in this country; we must rise up and these things must work.
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