Bauchi Pays N3.4bn Outstanding Gratuities

Chairman of the Bauchi State Pensions Board, Senator Bala Adamu Kariya, has said his office from May 2019 to date received from the state government and paid the sum of N3,418,288,11.68 as part of the outstanding gratuities the government was owing retired civil servants in the state.

Senator Kariya at a ministerial press briefing in Bauchi yesterday did not however mention the gratuities backlog owed retirees, but said the backlog was over N20 billion.

“The board processes the files of civil servants billed for retirement. In other words, we are the custodian of processed files of all the state civil servants who retired from service,” he said.

Senator Adamu said in order to avoid further accumulation of pensions and gratuity liabilities, the state government intends to commence the implementation of the proposed contributory pension scheme from June 30, 2021.

“As a sign of commitment, Governor Bala Mohammed appointed a 20-member committee including a staff member of Premium Pensions Ltd for technical guidance under the chairmanship of Mr Abdon Dalla Gin (Special Adviser on Civil Service Matters)”.

“In line with the terms of reference given to the committee, a final report with a draft bill has been carefully produced tapping from the 2004 Act, 2014 revised Act and previous efforts of successive state administrations like the 2005 and 2017 draft bills presented to Governor Mohammed as appropriate,” he said.