By Gloria Ikibah
The House of Representatives Copmmittee on the Federal Capital Territory Area Councils and Ancillary Matters has decided to investigate the failure of the six area councils to remit pension contributions to the Area Council Staff Pension Board.
This decision came after a motion was adopted during a session where the Board Director, Suleman Abdulrahman, appeared before the Committee on Wednesday.
The meeting was part of the Committee’s review of budget performance for 2024 in preparation for the 2025 budget cycle. During the session, Abdulrahman informed lawmakers that remittances had been inconsistent.
“By law and according to the pension reform act, each deduction from salaries in respect to pension is supposed to be remitted seven days after payment of salary, but unfortunately at the area councils that’s not what is happening. Sometimes they owe two to three months before remittance.
“The staff pay their employee contribution which is the 8 percent and 10 percent for the employer. It is remitted to their PFA accordingly from the area councils,” he said.
The Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Fred Agbedi demanded that the agency furnish it with the records pertaining to the matter.
“Furnish us with the details so we can know why the area councils are defaulting in their remittance.
“Let someone move a motion for us to investigate the discrepancies and delay in area councils remitting because salaries are paid monthly.
“The Committee should investigate the failure of the remittance from the area councils to the pension account,” Agbedi said.
The Chairman directed the Clerk to write to all six area councils, requesting detailed records of up-to-date pension contribution remittances for their employees.
The Committee also questioned Abdulrahman on why the Board received more funds than were allocated in the 2024 budget.
Documents submitted by the Board indicated that while the total appropriation for pensioner costs was ₦131,148,262, the Board received ₦151,137,417.
In response, Abdulrahman explained that the excess in salary variations was due to increase in the minimum wage.
“The personnel cost of all FCT staff is centralised with the treasury department and you are aware of the recent salary adjustments as a result of minimum wage which increased the total receipt. We are in touch with the treasury department to get us the supplementary approval so that we can update our records.
“Principally what we do is that we superintend over pension matters in all the six area councils and LEA. Payment of monthly pensions and other benefits that accrue to our prospective retirees.
“Our summary of the budget performance for 2024 was we had a total of N1.1 billion which was the ceiling, which consists of the recurrent, the personnel and overheard.
“The personnel cost, we have 115 percent budget performance. The overhead, we have 40 percent performance, we don’t have capital projects. It’s just a service organisation on change of monthly pensions,” he said.
Agbedi said the Committee would embark on budget oversight to all the agencies.
