Pensioners under the old pension scheme have revealed that they are unhappy with the Federal Government’s decision to scrap the Pension Transitional Directorate Arrangement.
Premium politics reported that last Monday, ministries, departments, and agency performance by the Orosanye Committee was approved by the Federal Executive Council, which is headed by President Bola Tinubu.
As many staff members were left perplexed about what to do next, there was stillness at the Directorate.
Prominent industry insiders claimed that PTAD was one of the agencies targeted for removal because of the actions of certain public servants at the Head of Service office.
According to a reliable source, 44,720 pensioners who were retired from public service and numerous other fictitious parastatals and ministry employees who were scheduled to be fired in April were working behind the scenes to bring down PTAD.
According to a different source, “some bad elements in the civil service seem to be the reason behind PTAD’s inclusion among agencies to be scrapped.”
Moreover, a different source claimed that “PTAD has stepped on the toes of dishonest individuals in the system. Lately, PTAD has reduced the number of inflated pensions, increased payments to retirees who truly deserve them, and removed phoney pensioners from payroll. Individuals who ought to receive less began receiving less, and those who ought to receive more began receiving more.
“Some civil servants have called for the addition of PTAD to be deleted since they are unable to penetrate the pension payroll to submit fake payments.”
An emergency meeting of its executive members has been called by the National Union of Pensioners.
According to its president, Godwin Abumisi, they would face difficulties as a result of the PTAD’s removal, which shocked them. He claimed to have been inundated with calls for protest by pensioners less than 24 hours after the news broke.
He said, “I recall taking night buses to Abuja for what the Head of Service called vetting before PTAD began. At the time, these verifications were intended to defraud pensioners. Many people lost their lives travelling to Abuja from their respective locations. Pensioners were therefore greatly relieved by the creation of PTAD.
“We worry that we might start to repeat the old experiences, where ministries handled pension work in a similar way to how they handled ministerial business, forcing pensioners to come into their office for various reasons. But now, we no longer go to the PTAD office.”
