A Pension Advocacy group, Pensioners Rights and Protection Alliance
(PPRA) has faulted the suspension of the Director-General, Mrs. Nellie Mayshak.
The Pension advocacy group
said that the alleged reasons given for the DG’s suspension was nothing but
calling a dog a bad name in order to hang it.
In a statement released
Wednesday in Abuja, the Executive secretary of PPRA, Mr. Sule Adams questioned the haste with
which the minister of finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun suspended the DG without first carrying out a
discreet and forensic investigation into the alleged fraud.
“The suspension of Mrs.
Nellie Mayshak according to him,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.” Says the group
They insisted that the
allegations are spurious and unfounded based on what they called their
knowledge of the workings of PTAD as according to them, all pensioners’
salaries are paid through the Central Bank of Nigeria to beneficiary’s accounts
using the Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS).
They informed also 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.
Mr. Sule Adams informed
that PTAD had saved tens of billions of Naira for the nation through the
elimination of over 4500 ghost pensioners and of recent saved another N7billion
in 5 months that otherwise would have
disappeared into the pockets of insurance companies and underwriters.
He said it is equally on
record that PTAD has a list of 120 pension fraudsters which it had submitted to
the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) for investigations while
challenging 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.” Mr. Sule Adams argued.
The group which says it
cannot sit back and watch pension administration in Nigeria return to the dogs
also disproved the widely reported allegations that the Director General was
drawing a whopping salary of N60 million every month saying 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 says is about the least
among its contemporaries in the public financial agencies such as CBN, FIRS ,ICPC
,PENCOM, NSITF, PPRA, to mention but a
few.
“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?” the group questioned.
Concluding, the pension
advocacy group marveled at why Nigerians love to pull down their brightest
brains informing that Mrs. Mayshak had a distinguished career that spanned
Europe, Asia, Canada and Africa before taking the PTAD job and she came highly
recommended.
“Mrs. Nellie Mayshak is
not just another Nigerian who was fortunate to get a job because of her gender
or who she knows, but because of her track record of performance based a
reputation built over the years working with different governments and
international agencies in public sector reforms. We therefore call on the
minister of Finance and indeed the president to see through the gang up against
this intelligent and hard-working Nigerian and not just lift the suspension but
clear her name through diligent investigation devoid of bias.” The advocacy
group admonished.
Mr. Adams, a retiree from
the federal civil service and also an exco member of the Nigerian Union of
Pensioners said they the pensioners are now more aware of the management of
their pension as regular communication and engagement opportunities are made
available to them by PTAD to understand their workings.
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