FCDA requires N350m to settle terminal benefits
The Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) requires about N350 million to settle the terminal benefits of its 136 retrenched workers.
The affected workers were served with their letters of retrenchment on August 23, 2004 and included nine directors, 18 deputy directors and 30 assistant directors.
Others were 30 officers on the rank of chief, 15 assistant chiefs and five higher executive officers.
The remaining 29 officers who were also served with their letters of retrenchment on the same day comprised mainly officers on higher executive officers’ cadre.
An investigation by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the FCT ministry showed that none of the affected officers collected salary for that month.
The investigation showed that names of the officers were also deleted from the September salary payment schedule.
According to the investigation, directors are entitled to about N3 million each while deputy directors are to collect N2.8 million each as their terminal benefits.
Each assistant director would get N2 million gratuity while those retired on salary grade level 14 would be paid N1.8 million.
Affected officers on salary grade level 13 would each be given about N1.6 million while those on salary grade levels 12 and 10 would get N1.4 million and N1.2 million respectively.
An officer in the finance department who wished to remain anonymous confirmed that the figures were arrived at based on the fact that the new pension scheme has not become operational.
The source, however, confirmed that the money had not been raised to pay the affected officers.
“The FCDA pension board requires about N500 million for its take off. You cannot believe that the board has not received a kobo since last year.
“All we have been doing is just to pay the salaries of staffers. I don’t know where we are going to source the money to pay those people,” the source said.
It takes an average of four months before a retiree in FCDA collects his terminal benefits and starts to enjoy the monthly pension.
The delay in prompt payment of those benefits is caused by factors that have to do with clearance of retired or retrenched officers in all the eight departments of FCDA.
NAN confirmed that the clearance was necessary to ascertain the indebtedness of a retiree.
Already some of the affected officers have started to hover around some offices to solicit for the assistance of their former colleagues to hasten the collection of their entitlements to enable them fend for their families.
One of the affected officers, who wished to remain anonymous, regretted their sack without immediate arrangement to pay their entitlements, saying the development was a recipe for corruption.
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