The Ogun Bureau of Local Government
Pensions says it has paid about N2.7 billion as pensions from January to
September, an official said on Thursday.
Mr Ayotunde Kolawole, the Permanent Secretary in the Bureau, disclosed this in Abeokuta
during an oversight visit to the bureau by members of Ogun House of
Assembly Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.
He said the affected pensioners were retired council workers, teaching and non-teaching staff in primary schools.
The
permanent secretary said the amount was paid from the monthly
allocation the bureau received from the State/Councils’ Joint Allocation
Accounts Committee (JAAC).
He said that the bureau had also paid N43.3 million as gratuities to the same category of pensioners during the period.
Kolawole,
however, said the amount would be enhanced if the state government paid
its contributions to the Local Government Staff Pension Fund.
He
said the bureau was saddled with the management of the old
pay-as-you-go and the new Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) for all the
affected pensioners.
Kolawole disclosed that the total number of pensioners being managed by the agency was 8,372 as at September.
Responding, Mr Odofin Sonuga,
the committee chairman, urged the bureau to organise seminars for
stakeholders regularly in order to fine-tune the pension scheme.
He
also advised the bureau to use the system adopted by other states that
had been worked well to improve on the state’s local government pensions
scheme.
Sonuga urged the bureau to always
collaborate with the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy
Affairs, the Local Government Service Commission and the House of
Assembly to ensure the growth of the scheme.
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