The Chairman, Kano State Pension Fund Trustees, Sani Gabasawa, has revealed that the state government owes retired workers a whopping sum of N20 billion as gratuities.
Mr Gabasawa made the disclosure to newsmen on Thursday in reaction to allegations that he engaged in negotiation with retirees to forfeit a certain percentage before they are paid their gratuities.
According to him, the pension trustees have not been able to pay gratuities to retirees since 2016, a situation that accumulated the backlog to the tune of N20 billion for over 31,000 retirees awaiting their payment.
He also attributed the accumulation of the backlog of the gratuities to the failure of some government organizations to remit their monthly 8 percent pension fees to the trustees, while some agencies could not remit the money fully.
The chairman noted that due to the failure of some organizations to remit the 8 percent, the pension trustees, too, owe them the sum of N28 billion.
“As I am talking to you, we pay N1.2 billion pension to retirees every month. Every month the pension increases.
“We are in a difficult situation. Let me tell you that there must be a delay in the payment of gratuities in this state. This is because the state has not paid gratuities since 2016 due to a lack of funds.
“At the moment, we are owed N20 billion naira and government organizations don’t pay their statutory 8% to us, hence they owe us N28 billion. So, you see how the situation has become complicated,” he said.
Mr Gabasawa, however, expressed hope that the state government would soon continue the payment, disclosing that Governor Abdullahi Ganduje had formed a committee to ratify all discrepancies in a bid to continue disbursement of the retired workers’ entitlements.
On the allegations, Mr Gabasawa said: “I challenge any retired worker whom I made an agreement to pay certain percentage before I pay him his gratuities to come forward and disclose it.”
He also described as blatant lies the allegation that he appointed his sons in key positions at the pension trustees and that he used them to serve as frontiers of his alleged shady deals.
