Adejoke Adeleye,Abeokuta
The Ogun State House of Assembly Committee on Local government and Chieftaincy Affairs has lauded the Bureau of Local Government Pension on its effort to ensure prompt payment of pensions to the pensioners in the State.
The House Committee Chairman, Hon. Olusola Sonuga gave the commendation during oversight visit to appraise the Bureau 2017 budget held at the Conference Hall, Parastatal building, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.
Sonuga in his speech said, the present administration’s commitments have been geared towards sustaining the prompt payment of pensioners, explaining that the commitment had helped the Bureau to record success in the discharged of its statutory duties to pensioners in the State.
He encouraged the Bureau to create synergy with the House Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs so that challenges confronting it would be brought to the attention of the State government for solutions, advising that it should create methods towards ensuring that intending retirees get their benefits a month or two months before they retire as document needed for fast tracking the payment should be submitted a year before the due date.
His words ‘’I want you to devise another method for pensioners so that they can get their benefits a month or two before their retirement. They should submit their documents for processing a year before their due date’’ .
In her remarks, the Permanent Secretary of the Bureau, Mrs. Irene Afolashade Kokumo, represented by the Director, Finance and Supplies, Mr. Rotimi Opeodu said that between January and September 2017, a total number of 963 retirees have been enlisted as pensioners on the payroll of the Bureau while the total sum of N3,786,164,954.56 have been paid to Local Government, teaching and non-teaching retirees across the State.
Kokumo appreciated the relentless effort of the present administration at making the welfare of pensioners paramount in its budget notwithstanding the paucity of funds in the State.