FCTA settles pensioners

14.01.2008

The Federal Captial Territory Administration (FCTA) has cleared the backlog of severance allowances owed its pensioners. The FCT Minister, Dr. Aliyu Modibbo Umar, disclosed this on Sunday while announcing some of the deliberations and decisions reached at the first 2008 FCT executive committee meeting in Abuja.

“A total of 4,715 staff members were disengaged, out of which 4,107 have been fully paid. This leaves 651 staff which we have cleared in the third batch payment which is about N237 million,” he said.

The minister said the payment, which commenced on December 10, 2007, was still ongoing. Dr. Umar, who paid tributes to the pioneer staff of the FCTA, said they should be commended for their sacrifice in building the FCT from the scratch.

The minister said he was concerned about their plights and that was why he personally intervened by writing two letters to the Accountant General of the Federation which resulted in the quick action on the issue.

According to him, the reason some of the pensioners had not been paid was problems like disjointed records of service which must be corrected to enable all of them enjoy their monthly pensions in earnest.

“Such problems like updating of records of service and clearance from indebtedness as well as pending disciplinary cases have made it a bit difficult to entirely mop up the operation as planned”, Dr. Umar said.