OF the 200,000 employers under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), 15, 000 are being investigated for failing to remit pensions deducted from their employees’ monthly emoluments, Director-General, National Pension Commission (PenCom), Mrs Chinelo Anohu-Amazu has said.
In a report, she said the defaulters have been assigned to Recovery Agents (RAs) to review their records and recover any outstanding pension contributions plus penalty
According to her, in pursuance of the statutory responsibility of ensuring compliance with the provision of the PRA 2014, the Commission deployed an application called Risk Management Analysis system for monitoring remittance of monthly pension contributions by employers.
She said: “Defaulting employers are subject to the regime of sanctions which includes among others a recovery process.
“The framework for recovery of outstanding pension contributions with penalty from defaulting employers among others, provided for appointment of RAs.
“Consequently, the Commission has identified and assigned over 15,000 employers to RAs to review their records and recover any outstanding pension contributions plus penalty. The Commission also follows up on complaints from workers against their employers for failure to remit pension contributions as and when due.”
Mrs Anohu-Amazu noted that where the employer refuses to remit the outstanding pension contributions of its employee within the time stipulated by the Commission, appropriate actions, including instituting legal action are taken.
She further said remittances by state governments have also been irregular.
“Irregular remittance by some state governments contribute to the unfunded RSAs which is caused by the economic challenges faced within the country.
“The private sector employers also view pension contributions as an additional cost of doing business which translates to non-funding of RSAs. In addition, refusal of employees to allow deduction of their own portion of the pension contributions from their salaries due to lack of awareness of the benefits of the CPS and measures put in place for the safety of the pension funds contribute to poor funding of RSAs.”
She stressed that both PenCom and the Pension Fund Administrators (PFA) work towards ensuring employers continuously fund their employees RSAs.