Minister of Power, Mr. Barth Nnaji on Monday said government has commenced investigation into allegations that PHCN Union did not remit the workers Contributory Pension since 2006.
Mr. Nnaji who spoke with State House Correspondents after presenting his Ministry’s scorecard to President Jonathan said that apart from the fraud they have been committing, the power sector union leaders have been misinforming their members, blackmailing the federal government and behaving like outlaws by manhandling senior management staff.
According to the minister, “There are lot of distortions out there. It is unfortunate that they are not getting the proper information but I can promise you that this week we are going to release a lot of information pertaining to the main issue which the union was quarrelling with government about.
“That has to do with how much they are going to take. They say it is N85, 000. I cannot understand how they could say that. Many of the people who are junior officers, some of them with WAEC qualification are going to go home with N8 Million. We just do not want to publish tallies sheet. Somebody who is in the position of an Assistant General Manager could go home with N28 Million. What we are saying is that there is a range. The highest officer could go home with N38mllion.
He further stated that the leadership of the power sector unions want government to exempt them from complying with the nation’s pension laws so that they can illegally collect pensions of between N8 million and N35 million per annum.
“So anybody who is telling you N85, 000 has a different mission. The area of difference is the following; the Union wants to be paid 25 per cent of the benefit at point of severance. That was an old policy before the 2004 Pension reform Act. After the Act they continued to carry on with the 25 per cent. They collected this money without remitting the money into the account, it was just written on paper. So the workers had nothing in their account. That is something we have now set up a panel to investigate and we have set up a panel headed by a former auditor general of the federation. It amount to fraud to have that kind of thing going on.
“Secondly the money that is being promised, workers are retiree based on that. What government has decided to do is that since no money was paid into the account from 2004, to June of this year, government will pay what is in the law. Government will pay its own component that is the PHCN component of it.
Workers were supposed to contribute 7.5 per cent and PHCN pays 7.5 per cent but since PHCN did not pay, government will pay it. This makes 15 percent. But the Union is saying that they would like government to pay the 25%. Every worker out there; be it private or public follows the pension act and how on earth would you say you do not want to obey the law of this nation. That is the threat. We have said let us give you the tally sheet. They said no.
Meanwhile they go and talk about N85,000. This is a country of rules but they go and attack an official of PHCN dragged her out and stripped her because the woman hold position of Acting GM Human Resources. Unions do not act this way. PHCN unions constitute themselves as outlaws. It is not right”.
Mr. Nnaji promised to release more information concerning the severance allowances for workers in the aftermath of the planned privatisation of PHCN, which he acknowledged has been the main issue of the disagreement between government and the workers union.
