By Onomiguren Agbamu
The Secretary to the Delta state government, Chief Kingsley Emu, has denied allegations of deducting monies from the ongoing local government pensioner’s payment.
Emu who gave the reaction while taking questions from newsmen at his office following allegations made by some retirees on a programme in Kpoko FM Warri, said the local government pension monies are strictly local government affairs, that ALGON and the auditor general of local government are the key players.
He explained that the N40 billion loan that was guaranteed by the state government to pay local government pensioner’s is with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, adding that the state only issues certificate to the pensioner’s to enable them to access their monies.
Emu in his words said, “the local government pension is strictly local government affairs, ALGON and the auditor general of local government are the key players”.
“You recall that the last administration had tried to put something in place to ensure that all lingering pensions were paid and to be able to pay, they needed to borrow, which led to a carryover that the Governor, Oborevwori also reaffirmed as promised during his campaigns and that was crystallized after he won.”
“It is strictly an ALGON affair that has the Governor’s consent, I am not a member of the ALGON but simply the Secretary to the State Government. I have no connection with local government pension and all their monies are in books, and it is even the Central Bank of Nigeria that is making the payment.
While giving a hint on the changes, the consultant, Logic Professional Services Chattered Accountant and Actuaries,(LPS), Mr. Chidiebere Orji, said they were not comfortable with the report prepared by the previous consultant and the assumptions.
Mr. Orji noted that the previous consultant uses a lower discount rate of 10%, when they checked the yields on FGM bond as at March 2011, it was little above 13.5% and the longest bond was about 13.7%, and they adopted 13.5%.
He also noted that the second assumption used by the previous consultant as stated in the report was a future salary increase of 8% per annul, saying this valuation is being done to transit to the contributory scheme, and it called “a discontinual valuation”.
He explained that his firm did not allow any provision for future salary increases, stressing that those two assumptions which the previous consultant made; the lower discount rate and future salary increase shouldn’t have come in.
He said, the changes also increase some local government pensioner’s accrued pension right, especially when they noticed wrong data composition, adding those who got higher pay are not complaining.
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