The Nasarawa State government is set to clear the backlog of gratuity it has, News About Nigeria reports.
The State Governor, Governor Abdullahi Sule, stated this while speaking during an unscheduled visit to the State Bureau for Pension Administrations.
He noted that the sum of N1 billion has been approved to that effect, adding that it will cater to over 1,000 retirees in the state.
According to him, it would be used to clear the backlog of gratuities owed to both state and local government retirees from the inception of the state in 1999 to 2010.
He mentioned that pensioners in the state are already receiving their pensions for February.
“The present administration under my watch has been working relentlessly to ensure that both the local and state pensioners are paid one hundred percent of the pension, with the pensioners already receiving their February pension,” he stated.
Speaking during the visit also, the Director General of the State Pension Bureau, Suleiman Nagogo, explained why retirees were being paid only N100,000 monthly in the past as gratuity.
He stated that payment of gratuity is usually done every quarter, where announcements are made for people to come for their money.
“Please recall that payment of this gratuity is being done every quarter, which means that we gather the amount we have to receive in three months and announce to the people to come and collect their gratuity.
“We don’t sit as a Bureau for Pension Administration, BPA, and say we are paying N100,000. There is a committee called the Gratuity Disbursement Committee, which is headed by the Deputy Governor of the State. They sit and look at the entire amount that has accrued for payment of gratuity and look at the recommendations that came from the BPA and how many people they can take at that quarter,” he said.
The governor paid a visit to the Bureau during the screening exercise of over 700 local government officials and 300 retired pensioners of the state government to monitor the exercise, which, according to him, was to reduce the hardship of the retirees by offsetting their entitlements.
