Worried by the increasing activities of scammers who defraud unsuspecting pensioners, the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has stepped up its awareness campaign against the menace.
Executive Secretary of PTAD, Dr. Chioma Ejikeme, said before assuming the responsibility for the payment of monthly pension, the pension industry was rife with complaints of extortion by fraudsters who calls pensioners, demanding for money to quicken computation and payment of outstanding liabilities.
Speaking at the opening of the 2020 sensitisation and capacity building workshop for anti-graft and other related agencies on the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS) in Abuja, she said these fraudsters take advantage of the desperate and unsuspecting pensioners to defraud them of their meagre benefits.
The PTAD boss also said the Directorate had been inundated with complaints of scammers impersonating or posing as staff of PTAD usually conveying wrong information and misleading write-ups.
She said the agency had deemed it fit to engage its stakeholders to continually re-strategise and come to terms with the realities of fraudulent activities as it pertains to the management of the Directorate’s pensioners.
She pointed out that it was against this backdrop that PTAD had launched the maiden edition of the workshop with the theme: “Zero-Fraud Pension Administration in Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS)”.
Nonetheless, Ejikeme said the PTAD had been liaising with security agencies including the Department of State Security (DSS), Nigerian Police Force (NPF), Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) to curtail the menace.
According to her, the synergy with security agencies has yielded some level of success in the apprehension and prosecution of some fraudsters, especially at verification centers.
She said: “Though there are still pockets of complaints bordering on illicit request for funds to process pension arrears and defrauding of the pensioners, the Directorate has concluded its on-field pensioner verification exercises. And, as it stands, a reasonable level of decline in the complaints has been achieved.”
She further added that through several collaborations, PTAD has been able to mitigate the perpetration of fraudulent activities carried out by syndicates and persons who fraudulently take advantage of the pensioners.
She said the Directorate at several stakeholder engagements at the various geopolitical zones, had reiterated its commitment to curtailing the perpetration of fraudulent acts.
She further stated that the successes recorded by the Directorate in curtailing fraudulent and dubious activities could not have been achieved without partnerships with the security and anti-graft agencies as well as the Public Complaints Commission, and SERVICOM. They all have served as avenues of informing the Directorate of the plights of the pensioners under the DBS.
Notwithstanding the feats, she there is always room for improvement and upskilling, pointing out that the forum provided an opportunity for all present to contribute from their pool of knowledge and expertise to achieve a zero-fraud pension administration in the DBS.
A representative of the security agencies, Commissioner of Police, Pension Office, DCP Ibrahim Tarfa said the pension reforms stands as one of the greatest legacies of government.
He said while corruption had destroyed the old pension scheme, the emergence of the Contributory Pension Schemes and the DBS was a game-changer for pension administration.
He specifically commended PTAD for sanitizing the pension industry in the country.
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