HOS says the state doesn’t have the funds to meet payments
The Kaduna State Head of Service (HOS), Hannatu Ugah, on Monday said the delay in the payment of pension to state and local government retirees was due to inadequate funds.
While briefing journalists in Kaduna, Ugah said the Bureau for State Pension alone had outstanding pension allowances of up to N1.97 billion.
According to her, the Bureau of Local Government required more than N100.8 million monthly to settle the pension of 5,420 retirees in the state.
Between April 2011 and April 2012, the Bureau for Local Government paid N1.16 billion as pension allowances and N81.7 million as gratuities. It also spent N55.1 million as death gratuities, N17.5 million on pension arrears and N8.8 million on accrued pensions.
Ugah said the delay in processing retirement records was also another obstacle in the payment of local government pension. She however said the government was making efforts to solve all the problems.
She added that the Bureau of State Pension still had N271.3 million outstanding gratuity allowances for 2011 but had paid N1.7 billion as pension from May 2011 to December 2011.
Speaking on welfare of civil servants, the HOS said approval had been given to settle all outstanding In-Service allowances of the past four years, adding that 2,068 workers had been promoted while about 3,000 others would sit for their promotion examinations in July.
