The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Mr. Ekpo Nta has called on the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), to work towards achieving zero-tolerance for corruption.
Mr. Nta who was represented by Mr. Justin Kuatsea of the Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Department (CMED), made the call at the PTAD office in Abuja, during the inauguration and induction of the new members of the Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU) of the organisation.
The ICPC Chairman stated that there have been reported cases of mismanagement and corruption in handling the pension funds of retirees, a situation which he described as most unfortunate because these have contributed in no small measure to the daunting challenges faced by retired senior citizens over the years.
He expressed optimism saying that “with the establishment of this Directorate and given its robust mandate to address the observed challenges, the dark age of pension fund mismanagement would be a thing of the past.”
Mr. Nta added that the Commission was equally of the view that positive results would be attained, especially now that it would be leveraging on the strong liaison with PTAD to produce a clean pension administration system in Nigeria.
Earlier in her address, PTAD Executive Secretary, Mrs. Sharon Ikeazor, expressed confidence in the ability of the members of the ACTU to spearhead the building and entrenchment of the culture of accountability, transparency and professionalism in the organisation.
Mrs. Ikeazor said that in view of the collaboration with ICPC, PTAD was determined to institute best practices in pension administration and prevent corrupt practices. She added that her organisation would not allow the activities of pension fraudsters to continue under any guise.
She also revealed that since she assumed duty as the Executive Secretary of PTAD, she and her team had been strategizing on ways to tackle the menace of corruption in the management of pension under the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS), for pensioners who retired on or before June 2007 and did not migrate to the new Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).