Retired paramilitaries in the country have asked to be exempted from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
The retired officers, under the auspices of the National Association of Retired Paramilitary Officers, said this in a statement in Abuja on Monday ahead of their participation in the House of Representatives public hearing on the bill to amend the Law Reform Act. 2014 pensions.
The declaration was signed by the national president of the association, Victor Ogbebor. The bill, first sponsored by Oluwole Oke (PDP, Osun) in 2017, seeks to amend the Pension Reform Act to provide for the exemption of the Nigerian Police Force from contributory pension. scheme.
However, at the time, the police said they were not interested.
The CPS, established under the Pension Reform Act of 2004, was repealed and replaced by the Pension Reform Act in 2014.
It requires a minimum contribution of 10 and 8 percent of the employees’ monthly emolument by the employer and the employee, respectively. This is paid into the employee’s Retirement Savings Account (RSA).
The bill before the House also establishes that a pensioner must receive at least 75 percent of their retirement benefits upon retirement and criminalizes undue delay in pension payment.
Lawmakers had said that the bill, if passed, would ensure adequate pay for police officers when they retire and also improve their well-being.
The public hearing for the legislation is scheduled for February 22.
In the statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES, the association noted that the military and other paramilitary agencies such as the SSS and the DIA have been removed from the CPS due to the dangerous nature of their jobs.
The association said the reason it is moving forward exempting militaryalong with the police and other paramilitary agencies, it is because they too face similar dangers and difficulties in the exercise of their constitutional or assigned duties.
The argument by some that withdrawing the paramilitary agencies from the CPS will destroy the very soul of the scheme is not true, he said.
This is because PENCOM’s accumulated assets are only less than 10 percent, so the alleged divestment is negligible.
The association also pointed out that the CPS problem is caused by the ignoble role of the pension administrators that are supposedly benefiting from the regime to the detriment of the taxpayers in whose name they are investing the funds.
“This disproportionate profit is indisputably what informs the resistance of those who oppose the withdrawal of the Paramilitary Services from the CPS despite the small part of their contribution.
“That despite the large profits declared at the end of each year in the General Shareholders Meetings, the pensioners who are in the new regime (PENCOM) have been in the same amount of the scheduled monthly pensions since the period of retirement from service until last year when they decided to add some misery.
“This is contrary to Section 72 of the Act, which states that contributions will be invested by the pension fund administration for the security and maintenance of fair returns on the amount invested,” the association said.
He also complained that retirees who had too few years to retire before the start of CPS lost much more.
“CPS can be good if affected people have enough years to do it before they retire and not for people who are about to retire. At the time of the implementation of the contributory pension regime in June 2004, the circular issued by the Federation’s Civil Service Headquarters only exempted people who had three years to retire from joining the regime.
“…If you have three years and even a month to retire, they throw you into the CPS when retirees who have contributed 25 years or more have not made significant contributions.
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“Retires under CPS get little or no monthly pension compared to their colleagues in the Defined Benefit Pension Plan who earn 80 percent of their monthly salary while in service as their monthly pension. Retirees in CPS earn much less than 20 percent of their monthly salary while in service as their monthly pension,” he said.
While the association thanked the House of Representatives for embarking on the exercise to remove the police force from the contributory pension regime, it advocated that paramilitary services be included in the exercise in the interests of justice, fairness and fair play. .
Alternatively, they also asked the House to consider reverting CPS retirees who had worked 25 or more years in the service of their nation before the contributory pension plan began in June 2004 to the Defined Benefit Pension Plan.
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They said this was appropriate as they did not have enough time to contribute anything significant that would have put them in a strong position for retirement.
This, they said, will end the agitation against poor CPS implementation.