BPE to conclude payment process of defunct PHCN staff soon – DG

The Bureau of Public Enterprises says it is in the final process of payment of benefits to ex-staff, retirees and Next of Kins of staff of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria.
The Acting Director-General of the BPE, Dr. Vincent Akpotaire, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday in Abuja.
Akpotaire said the distribution of terminal benefits to the beneficiaries took place on January 9 as agreed with the PHCN unions.
Akpotaire also said that after the beneficiaries had signed off on their benefits, the Bureau prepared 167 active staff for the audit process in preparation for their final payment.
He said although verification for the last set of beneficiaries was concluded November 2016, there were other processes to be followed before beneficiaries were paid their entitlements.
Akpotaire said the processes include data collation, data cleaning and obtaining the necessary approval from the appropriate authorities, among others.
He, however, said that the approval to proceed with the cleared beneficiaries was obtained on December 21, 2016 at a meeting of all relevant stakeholders, including the defunct PHCN Unions.
He said: “It must be noted that all these processes involve many inter-government agencies which took part in the verification and payment process.
“The agencies include: Pencom, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, BPE and the PHCN residual team with each having designated role in the process.”
Akpotaire also said that the Office of Accountant-General of the Federation had approved payment to respective Pension Fund Administrators of the outstanding 404 Retirement Savings Account.
The acting director-general said that the approval was submitted to PENCOM and OAGF after the last verification.
He stated: “The issue of short payment is being addressed while efforts are ongoing to finalise the cleaned schedule of Retirees/NOKs.”
He said that it would be transferred to the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate for further action, adding: “This will be finalised before the end of February.”
He, however, said it was not possible to state how much the final settlement would amount to until the benefit of the last beneficiary is computed.
Akpotaire said: “A process that involves money is meticulously handled so that you do not encounter challenges at the end.
“Thus, BPE is working in tandem with the audit team to hasten work so that those that have been verified and cleared are paid promptly.”
Akpotaire said during the exercise, BPE encountered some challenges such as conflicting staff numbers, incomplete requisite verification documents and first time complaints and appearances.
He said: “Right now, there are several people that are still having challenges with their documents from which bio data is extracted for computation.
“These challenges include; lack of information on date of first appointment, date of exit, date of birth, date of death, letter of administration and PFA slip.
“These challenges contribute to the delay in the payment of terminal benefits and BPE can only pay beneficiaries that have passed through all the laid down processes by the implementation committee.
“Suffice it to state that the exercise is being finalised, as soon as that is done, it would be taken for approval for payment to commence.”