The House of Representatives’ probe of the National Pension Commission (PenCom) and alleged violations of the Pension Reform Act 2014 sparked uproar in the industry. Omobola Tolu-Kusimo reports
THE House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee probe into PenCom’s activities and the alleged violation of the Pension Reform Act 2014, which held on February 7, 2019, began with an assurance from its Chairman, Hon. Johnson Agbonayinmam. He said: “We are here to do our oversight function and not to witch-hunt anybody or the commission as a whole.”
He continued: “When a complaint is brought to us, we will investigate. So, this is just an investigation. It is purely investigative and until proven guilty, the commission is innocent. We are investigating all issues. I am saying this because the submission from some quarters before today’s probe showed that we have taken a position. But no, we have not taken a decision. What we are doing is also in support of President Muhammadu Buhari’s fight against corruption.”
But some stakeholders thought otherwise. To them, the word investigation evoked a negative feeling for a sensitive industry like the Nigerian pension industry.
Present at the probe to state their positions were government agencies, including the Civil Service Commission, Ministry of Finance, Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), Pension Fund Custodian (PFC), and other stakeholders from the private sector, civil society groups, and individuals from across the country.
Explaining what led to the probe, Agbonayinmam said: “At the plenary session of November, 2018, the House deliberated on a motion on the need to investigate the violation of PRA 2014 by PenCom and resolved to constitute an Ad-Hoc Committee to investigate the matter. Consequently, an ad-hoc committee was constituted on December 12, 2018 with the mandate to investigate the activities of the commission and violation of the Act from April 2017 till date.”
He listed the violations to include unduly creating impasse in the matter of appointment and resumption of duty of the members of the Board of the Commission; illegal creation of additional Directorates and appointment of more directors, thereby increasing the number from 10 to 17 directors and illegal increase of Commission’s staff End of Service Benefits by 300 per cent.
When Agbonayinmam asked PenCom Acting Director-General, Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar, to respond to allegations against the commission, she said they were false, unfounded and embarrassing, adding that the commission has always acted in line with the Act, and that the management and members of staff of the commission work with the Act.
“The Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2014, as most of my colleagues call it is our bible; we walk by it. It controls every decision we take, so we can never violate it,” she added.
She also said the Commission’s contention that the House of Representatives was misled by the motion moved on November 29, 2018, as the allegations listed in the House resolution against the commission for infractions of the PRA 2014 are completely incorrect and unfounded.
Stating the commission’s position, she said: “Accordingly, the commission hereby presents to the Ad-hoc Committee, the true positions of the issues. The House Ad-hoc Committee may recall that following the dissolution of the erstwhile management of PenCom on 13 April, 2017 along with the managements of 22 other Agencies and Parastatals, the Federal Government announced the names of a new management team subject to confirmation by the Senate.
“You will further recall that on 27 May, 2017, the Federal Government reconstituted the nominated team subject to Senate confirmation. In the interim, however, the Federal Government directed the undersigned, as the most senior career staff of the commission, to superintend the affairs of the commission in acting capacity, pending assumption of duty by the appointed members of the Executive Management. Consequently, we have in the Commission since April 2017, only a transitional management run by career staff of the commission.
“By virtue of Section 19(3) of the PRA 2014, Mr. President has the power to appoint the Chairman, the Director-General and Commissioners of PenCom, subject to confirmation by the Senate. The career staff of the commission absolutely do not have any role or influence on decisions taken by either the Executive or Legislative arms of the Federal Government in the matter of appointment to the Board of the Commission. It is, therefore, incorrect to allege that the current transitional management is stalling the appointment or assumption of duty of the new Board members.”
On the accusation of illegal creation of additional Directorates and appointment of more directors, thereby increasing the number from 10 to 17, The Actg DG said: “Section 30 of the PRA 2014 provides that the structure of PenCom shall comprise “Divisions, Departments and Units as may be approved by the Board from time to time.”
“Furthermore, the commission has not recruited any additional General Manager (i.e. Director) since the beginning of the transitional period in April 2017 to date. What happened was a normal and duly approved promotion exercise for career staff of the Commission, where three Deputy General Managers were promoted to the grade of General Managers after duly satisfying the established criteria in accordance with the terms and conditions of their employment.
“The Ad-hoc Committee may wish to note that the Report of the Annual Staff Performance Appraisal exercise, containing recommendations for promotion to General Manager and other grades, was approved by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) on 18 April, 2018, in the absence of a functional Board of the Commission. This is consistent with the provision of Section 17(5) of the PRA 2014 and Section 9 of the First Schedule to the PRA 2014, as well as Mr. President’s directive of 16 July, 2015 to all MDAs whose Boards were dissolved that issues requiring approval of Boards should be referred to him for decision through the respective supervising Ministries.
“You may wish to further note that since the inception of the transitional management in April 2017, PenCom has not undertaken any staff recruitment. The recruitment undertaken by the erstwhile Executive Management on the eve of their departure was suspended by the House Committee on Federal Character due to issues associated with the process.”
Interjecting, a member of the ad-hoc committee, Hon. Benjamin Wayo, queried the legitimacy of the President usurping the statutory roles of the board by directing the SGF to act on his behalf.
He said there is no provision in Section 17(5) of the PRA 2014, that gives the President the authority to usurp the powers or functions of the board of the commission.
He pointed out that the President should be called to order for usurping the powers of the board.
But Hon Agbonayinmam, who is the ad-hod committee Chairman, quickly overruled Hon. Wayo’s points, noting that constitutionally, the President can direct the SGF to act on his behalf, and the case of the PenCom is not an exception.
Wayo, who insisted on his point was further cut short by Hon Agbonayinmam, leading to a mild argument between the legislators.
Another member of the Committee, Hon. Iboro Asuquo Ekanem, questioned the legitimacy of the transitional management team by the commission, saying that the PRA of 2014 does not recognise such team.
He also queried the non-remittance of Federal Government’s monthly pension contributions into workers Retirement Savings Account (RSA) and the creation of a Transitional Management Team.
Reacting, the Ag DG clarified that “Transitional Management” is a mere semantic and it is temporary before the board resumes. According to her, all Directors and Heads of Departments comprise the management committee. As such the commission does not need anybody’s approval to act on operational matters like the management committee, hence the creation of the term transitional management. She explained that transitional management is an operational word used by the management to work as team.
Speaking on the allegation of illegal increase of commission’s staff End of Service Benefits by 300 per cent, she said the allegation is also false and unfounded.
On Federal Government’s non-remittance of monthly contributions into RSA accounts, she explained that remittance is done in arrears of between two to four months.
At the end of the probe, the Ad-Hoc Committee did not make any statement against the commission. Rather, Hon Agbonayinmam and his members asked the Commission to provide PenCom staff travel schedule, travel ticket and payments made, explaining that the reason they demanded for the details was to ensure that everybody, including her, who collected money did travel. They also requested to see details of contracts awarded since she took over as Acting DG and all that were procured under her. They further demanded to see PenCom assets.
But the Acting DG said she has not awarded any contract; neither does the commission have any other asset aside its headquarters in Maitama, Abuja.
Hon Agbonayinmam, however, adjourned sitting to an unannounced date amidst protest by some stakeholders, who said they were not allowed to state their opinions.
A stakeholder from the private sector said the probe was irritating the private sector. “We are irritated as thoroughbred private sector investor and stakeholders. What is the Ad-Hoc Committee looking for? What are they investigating? The fact that they say they are investigating the activities of PenCom and its violation has already caused tension in the system. And after hearing what they have to say, my conclusion is that they have only heated the system with the investigation. You can even see that the legislators seem confused and eventually started laughing and sharing jokes.”
Centre for Pension Right Advocacy Executive Director, Ivor Takor lamented that the word investigation conveyed a very negative feeling. “The word investigation conveys a very negative feeling. It does not flow from what happened during the proceedings. I think that if the National Assembly wants documents from PenCom, they should sit with PenCom and get the documents and not say they are calling for an investigation. Because this industry strives on goodwill and there are new initiatives like micro pension which people have to buy in. And when you begin to talk about investigation, the major stakeholders, who are the workers and retirees, feel that something is going wrong in the industry and from what they have shown today, nothing has gone wrong with the industry. If the Federal Government is deducting money from workers and they are not remitting, the National Assembly should have sought it out with the government. Also, if the Presidency has not appointed board, what is the business of PenCom staff with that? Are they to appoint boards for themselves?
“The law states that for all statutory parastatals, in the absence of a board, they report to the President, through Secretary to the Government (SGF) and they know it. Why will they be asking whether reporting through the SGF is right or wrong? I think it is really mean. When they came here to ask which staff travelled, did he actually travel, it is so mean and a waste of people’s time, who travelled all the way from different states in the country to come and be hearing this type of a thing. It is very sad.
“As to whether the fund is safe or not, the fund is safe. I happen to be one of the people, who wrote the PRA 2004 and I was a board member of Pencom for seven years. We know that everything was put in place to safeguard the funds and that comes first. The issue we have had in pension has to do with the old pension, Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS) and not Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS). To even think that why they do not have a board is between the Presidency and the National Assembly, yet the legislators still blame PenCom for maintaining and sustaining the pension industry,” he said.
Hight Street Consulting Ltd Managing Director, Wilson Ideva, said it is National Assembly’s role to carry out oversight functions on government agencies and parastatals.
Ideva, a former Managing Director of one of the PFAs, said: “People may have mixed feelings, especially those in the private sector about what is going on. But in between, the truth is always constant. As we all witnessed today, no fraud was detected because there can never be any fraud. Like the Acting DG said, there can never be any fraud before her, with her or after her. The statement speaks for itself, which means in perpetuity, there will never be anytime there is fraud because of the internal control that has been put in place.”