Pensioners Rights and Protection Alliance (PPRA) has kicked against the haste with which the minister of finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun suspended the Director-General of the Pension Transition Arrangement Department (PTAD), Mrs. Nellie Mayshak.
The pension group, represented by the Executive Secretary, Sule Adams labelled the suspension as “a witch-hunt.”
In a statement in Abuja wondered that the suspension was carried out without first carrying out a discreet and forensic investigation into the alleged fraud.
“The suspension of Mrs. Nellie Mayshak came to us as a rude shock not because she is above such disciplinary action, but because we find the process leading to it as gravely flawed and undeserving of a Nigerian who had worked hard since the establishment of PTAD to put smiles on the faces of us, Nigerian pensioners.
“It is an open secret that Nigerian pensioners have borne the brunt of the pervasive corruption in the Nigerian society more than any other group after toiling all through their productive years; PTAD and by extension, Mrs. Nellie Mayshak came to reverse the situation after similar interventionist agencies contributed in worsening the situation in the past.”
The group insisted that the allegations are spurious and unfounded based on the knowledge of the workings of PTAD, adding that all pensioners’ salaries are paid through the Central Bank of Nigeria to beneficiary’s accounts using the Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS).
The group said that such payments are tracked through the banks to ensure that every pensioner receives their entitlement immediately they are paid, stressing that it is a known fact that PTAD prepares and submits monthly payroll of pensioners to the office of the Accountant General of the Federation in addition to issuing of payment instruction to the same office which is as adjunct of the federal ministry of finance.
The group therefore wondered why the ministry could now turn around abruptly to deny the agency if there isn’t much to the suspension order than meets the ordinary eye, even as it restate the need for the president to go deeply into the matter.
The group said that PTAD had saved tens of billions of Naira for the nation through the elimination of over 4,500 ghost pensioners and of recent saved another N7billion in five months that otherwise would have disappeared into the pockets of insurance companies and underwriters.
The group said that PTAD has a list of 120 pension fraudsters which it had submitted to the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) for investigations even as it challenged the public to cross check these assertions from the Federal Ministry of finance and the ICPC respectively.
“It is therefore preposterous to say that the Director General padded the payroll when she has been in the forefront of those fighting against such group.”
The group which said that it would sit back and watch pension administration in Nigeria returned to the dogs, disproved the widely reported allegations that the Director General was drawing a whopping salary of N60 million every month, saying that Mrs. Nellie Mayshak earns a little over N3million a month which was duly approved for the office by the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission and which it said is about the least among its contemporaries in the public financial agencies such as CBN, FIRS, ICPC, PENCOM, NSITF and PPRA earn.
“How can any civil servant allocate salary to his or herself if it is not an attempt to smear the woman by the endemic cabal of fraudsters whom she had fought relentlessly to remove their hands from the till of hapless pensioners?” [myad]
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