The Cross River State Local Government Pensions Board and the Office of the Auditor-General for Local Government have pledged to strengthen collaboration to improve pension administration and ensure a more seamless retirement process for local government workers across the state.
The commitment was made during a courtesy visit by members of the Local Government Pensions Board to the Auditor-General for Local Government, Mr. Bassey Abam Eko, in Calabar.
Speaking during the visit, the Executive Secretary of the Board, Mrs. MariaMenku Odu, said the engagement was aimed at fostering greater synergy between both institutions in the discharge of their statutory responsibilities.
She explained that the Board, inaugurated on July 7, 2024, is the first of its kind in the state and was established with a mandate to collaborate with relevant agencies to strengthen pension administration and improve service delivery to retirees.
According to her, the Board comprises seasoned professionals, including its Chairman, Mrs. Ekeng Ebri, a retired Executive Secretary, and three lecturers from tertiary institutions, all committed to repositioning the pension system.
“We are working in synergy to see how we can strengthen pension administration,” Mrs. Odu said.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the Board, Mrs. Ekeng Ebri, congratulated Mr. Eko on his appointment and reaffirmed the Board’s readiness to work closely with the Auditor-General’s office to improve the welfare of pensioners.
She said the collaboration would help both institutions effectively deliver on the mandates entrusted to them by the state government.
“Our coming here today is to formally identify with you and reaffirm our commitment to work together to ensure that the responsibilities entrusted to us are successfully delivered,” she said.
Mrs. Ebri acknowledged the challenges confronting pension administration, including delays in processing retirement benefits and bureaucratic bottlenecks, and called for collective efforts to address them. She also decried acts of sabotage within the system, stressing the need for integrity and accountability in the management of pension matters.
“We owe our loyalty first to God, then to humanity, to those who appointed us, to our staff and, most importantly, to the pensioners we are called to serve,” she added.
Responding, the Auditor-General for Local Government, Mr. Bassey Abam Eko, described the visit as timely, noting that effective public service delivery can only be achieved through collaboration among government institutions.
He reiterated the government’s commitment to ensuring that only genuine pensioners receive retirement benefits, warning that fraudulent practices, including payments to ineligible persons, would not be tolerated.
Mr. Eko identified the late processing of retirement documentation by some civil servants as one of the major causes of delays in pension payments.
“From the day an officer joins the service, the system already knows the date of retirement. Unfortunately, some officers wait until they retire before beginning the documentation process, thereby creating unnecessary delays,” he explained.
He also expressed concern over errors in retirement computations and the backlog of unpaid gratuities, noting that the last gratuity payments covered retirees up to the 2015/2016 period, leaving subsequent beneficiaries still awaiting payment.
To address the challenge, the Auditor-General advised the Board to institutionalise annual retirement projections by compiling data on officers due for retirement, their expected benefits and the attendant financial implications.
According to him, such proactive planning would enable government to make adequate budgetary provisions and prevent the accumulation of pension liabilities.
He assured the Board of his office’s full support, pledging to adopt a thorough and transparent audit process to safeguard the pension system and protect the interests of retirees.
“The government does not want any pensioner to suffer unnecessarily. We must continue to work together to strengthen the system, promote transparency and ensure that those who have served the state retire with dignity,” Mr. Eko said.
By Daniel Bebia
