Research institute pensioners allege mismanagement of funds

Pensioners under the aegis of the Severed Staff of Research Institutes have petitioned the Federal Government over fresh allegation of fraud discovered in their pension funds domiciled in the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.

The group under the umbrella body of National Cereal Research Institute, Badeggi and Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), Ibadan had alleged that some unnamed personnel in the Office of the Accountant General of deliberately manipulated the computation and payment of their gratuities and pensions by using forged documents thus short paying the beneficiaries to the tune of millions of Naira.

In the petition dated March 24, 2014 signed by Femi Falana SAN, its legal counsel, the aggrieved pensioners threatened to initiate legal actions against those suspected to have masterminded the alleged manipulations and forgeries if, within 21 days, the Accountant General of the Federation failed to correct the noticeable anomalies being perpetrated in his office.

The petition which was copied to the Attorney General of the Federation, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Public Service Reforms Commission lamented that the document on the salary structure known as the Consolidated Tertiary Institutions Salary Structure (CONTISS), which was used to prepare the entitlements due to members “was alleged to be forged and does not represent the provisions of CONTISS as regard computation of gratuity and pension hence the short payment of their balances.”

Femi Feyisipo