By Bashir Hassan Abubakar
The Executive Chairman of Bauchi State Local Government Pension Board, Umar Barau Ningi, mni has revealed that the 11,422 pensioners that are currently in the lists of the Board starts enjoying their pensions in first month after retirement.
Ningi, mni stated this yesterday at the ongoing Bauchi State Ministerial Press Briefing, while showcasing the Board’s successes to journalists.
He said that, with the constitution of the Board of Local Government Pension in 3020, the Board first undertook physical verification of all pensioners and thay in the process, any pensioner whose documents were doubtful and those who refused to present themselves for verification were removed from the list of Local Governments Pensioners under the Local Government Pension Board.
The board chairman said that, by the end of 2023, Governor Bala Mohammed instructed that payment of Local Government pensioners be returned to the Board, and that this had allowed the Board to clean the payroll and removed all doubtful pensioners and those who did not present themselves for verification.
“At the end of the exercise, the Board arrived at total inherited liability of N11,263,579,611.34.with a total of 6,504 Pensioners on the Board’s payroll. From the end of the exercise to May, 2024, over 4,918 staff have retired from the services of the 20 Local Governments with unpaid benefits of another N11,130,036,855.30.
“This brings the total liability, as at May 2024, to N22,393,616,466.60 and total Pensioners to 11,422”, said Ningi.
He further disclosed that, “While Local Governments never failed in monthly payment of pensions, the State Government had provided over N2Billion for payment of gratuities”.
According to the Ningi, mni, the Local Government Pension Board had, since last year, achieved the ideal situation of paying Pensioners on the very first month of their retirement, stressing that, “This is an unprecedented feat realized under the Governor Bala Mohammed’s dynamic administration.