NPA: Pilfering Retiree Funds

Nigerian Port Authority

Recent investigations indicate that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) pays over N600 million to ghost retirees annually, resulting in the loss of several billions of naira in the last few years
By Bayo Bernard
Retirees of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) are perhaps the most badly treated ex-servicemen in Nigeria. Following years of labour to their fatherland, what the former public servants expect is that they would be taken care of in their old age, having spent their youthful years in service to the nation. But that is not to be, as many of them now survive on alms and handouts from close relatives and family members. The story of the retirees– over 8,000 of them– is heart rending.
Many of the retirees have died while waiting to get their entitlements paid by authorities. But, unknown to the retirees, some elements within the Authority have have been using crooked means to deny them of their entitlements. In the desperation to get what is ordinarily their right the retirees often besiege the NPA offices in Abuja and Lagos from time to time but are often told to exercise patience as there was not enough money to meet their needs.
On one of such occasions, however, a number of them had stormed the NPA Abuja office demanding to know why their pension arrears for over five years had not been paid. Many of them weakened by old age, were escorted by sympathetic relatives to the venue. Meanwhile, on this particular occasion when the retirees had expected the worst, they had, therefore, decided to go spiritual by invoking curses on their percived tormenters. So, what did they do? On their way to the NPA office they took with them Bibles and the Koran. And as soon as they were told by the Authority’s official that everything concerning their situation still remains the same, they began to invoke curses on those they consider to be holding onto their entitlements, using the holy books.
That was in October 2008. And considering what happened that fateful day, not a few stakeholders thought that the NPA would turn a new leaf and do what is right by paying the suffering retirees their arrears of benefits.
“Our children are suffering at home, that is why we came with the Holy Bible and Quaran to appeal to them. If it were before, we would have been here with coffin. Our members are dying daily and these people are not listening to us,” Ganiyu Makanjuola, Lagos Branch head of NPA Pensioners Welfare Association lamented at the time.
Meanwhile, not a few are oblivious of the fact that the inability of NPA to pay the retirees their benefits is not borne out of inadequate fund, as always claimed by the Authority’s management. Some powerful and highly-placed NPA officials have actually been using the money meant for the retirees to fester their own nests. For years these corrupt individuals, allegedly in connivance with some top echelon of the NPA management, have compiled a list of imaginary retirees who are paid pension every month. This is known as padding.
What they normally do is to compile these names with those of authentic retirees, and on the day of payment the imaginary retirees usually the cronies of the officials, also receive their ‘entitlements’.
But these monies, running into several millions of Naira usually end up in the pockets of the unscrupulous and corrupt government officials. The game has been going on for a long time in the NPA, resulting in huge monetary loss to the Authority, especially the depletion of its Superannuation Fund, sources said. The Superannuation Fund is usually set aside to be used to pay retirees after they bow out of active service.
The implication is that the authentic retirees are not paid due to the paucity of fund, resulting from this deliberate siphoning of available resources though this ingenious and evil means.
According to investigations, the Authority may have lost several billion of naira through this means over the last few years. Although The Source could not confirm the exact amount, sources within the NPA hinted that the scam has been going on for no less than five years. On a monthly basis, no fewer than 1,000 imaginary retirees are said to benefit from this largesse, netting well over N50 million from the Authority’s purse.
“If you multiply 50 by 12, you will arrive at N600 million annually, and that is a huge money considering that the NPA retiree budget on a monthly basis is a little over N250 million. By implication, the Authority loses 20 per cent of the retiree budget to these ghost retirees,” a source within the Authority told The Source last week.
These sharp practices have prevented the NPA from performing it’s obligations to thousands of genuine retirees who had spent their active years labouring for the government.
Currently, the NPA is said to be owing its 8,500 retirees over N10 billion in pension arrears. This includes all the pension increases that have been approved by the Federal Government in the last few years.
From various investigations carried out by The Source, the over N80 billion of the NPA Superannuation Fund is said not to be properly accounted for, due to this scam and other sharp practices within the Authority.
Early this year, hundreds of retirees stormed NPA’s Marina, Lagos headquarters office, doing what has now become a routine exercise: barricading and picketing the office and demanding that they be settled. For the several hours that the suffering retirees stood under the scorching sun, nothing tangible came out from the management. The “senior citizens,” as retirees are popularly refered to later went home traumatised and more dejected.
Some of them had openly lamented that their children have been chased out of school because they could not pay tuition fees, while others said they were being vilified by their landlords after they could not pay backlogs of their rent.
Indeed, no one can tell when NPA retirees will begin to smile permenantly as there are no indications that the Authority’s management is doing anything tangible to address the issue.
Moreso, those believed to be perpetrating the heinous crime are said to be highly connected staffers of the Authority– those an insider described as “untouchables.”
Tola Adekoya, NPA’s Executive Director, Finance and Administration only recently disclosed that some serving staff of the Authority connived with some banks to perpetrate fraud with the pensions fund. According to the NPA top brass, the fraudulent payment was recently discovered by the authority’s auditors during a routine exercise. Following the discovery, Adekoya disclosed that over 800 fake pensioneers have been stopped from receiving pension payments.
Meanwhile, an inhouse manhunt is being carried out within the NPA to fish out criminal elements whose actions are said to be responsible for this huge monetary loss, for the purpose of handing such individuals to relevant anti-graft agencies. Though stakeholders insist that this will not translate to immediate benefits for the pensioneers who have been waiting endlessly to smile again, observers insist that such an action would be a veritable start point.