That all workers may enjoy retirement…CPS detests defaulters
The Pension Reform Act 2004 establishes a contributory pension scheme (CPS) for all employees in the country to ensure that every person who worked in either the Public Service of the Federation, Federal Capital Territory or Private Sector receives his retirement benefits as and when due.
The scheme empowers employers to deduct pension contributions at source and remit such deductions to the employees’ Pension Fund Administrator, which then ensures that each contributor’s PIN is credited with the amount due.
However, more than nine years after the law became effective, many employers in the private sector are yet to embrace the scheme. This is in spite of the fact that it is mandatory for all organisations in the private sector with a minimum of five employees to subscribe to the scheme.
Under the scheme, an employee contributes 7.5 percent of his monthly emolument, that is, the sum total of basic salary, transportation and housing allowance, while the employer also contributes 7.5 percent of the employee’s monthly emolument towards the retirement benefits of the employee. The employer is empowered to deduct at source the monthly contribution of the employee in his employment and, not later than seven working days from the day the employee is paid his salary, remit this amount to the custodian specified by the pension fund administrator.
PFAs to report defaulting employers to PenCom
In case an employer refuses to pay the contributions stipulated in the Pension Act to the PFA chosen by the employees, the PFA is at liberty to report such employer to the National Pension Commission (PenCom).
If after seven days of the payment of salaries any employer refuses for whatever reason to remit the pension contributions of his employee to the PFA where such employee has opened a Retirement Saving Account, the PFA is obligated to report the employer to PenCom if the funds are not received by the 14th day from the payment of salaries. Such an employer will be liable to a penalty in addition to the funds due.
According to section 11 (7) of the Pension Act, any employer who fails to remit the contributions within the time prescribed shall, in addition to making the remittance already due, be liable to a penalty to be stipulated by the commission, provided that the penalty shall not be less than 2 percent of the total contribution that remains unpaid for each month or part of each month the default continues, and the amount of the penalty shall be recoverable as a debt owing to the employee’s retirement savings account as the case may be.
PenCom engages recovery agents
After having found out that there are thousands of defaulting employers across the country, PenCom decided to hire 73 recovery agents to recover outstanding pension contributions including the accrued interest. The interest penalty is 24 percent per annum for any outstanding contributions. Already, the recovery agents have recovered more than N3.5 billion from defaulting organisations.
While employers with outstanding pension contributions yet to be remitted to their employees’ RSAs are being identified through the review of monthly return of contribution not received from employers submitted by PFAs, the details of defaulting employers, including the name of employees whose pension contributions were not remitted, the amounts involved and the period covered, are being generated and verified to ensure accuracy.
The primary duty of the recovery agents is to recover all outstanding contributions from defaulting employers together with the interest penalty within a specified period.
Specifically, the duties of the recovery agents include: Serve demand letter to defaulting employers to request for payment of outstanding pension contributions with interest penalty; reconcile outstanding pension contributions with employers where necessary; compute interest penalty in line with PRA, 2004; follow up with the defaulting employers to ensure remittance of outstanding pension contributions and interest penalty; obtain evidence of remittance of outstanding pension contributions with interest penalty to the employees’ RSAs; and forward the evidence of remittance made by defaulting employers to the commission.
Others are institute legal action on recalcitrant employers that failed to remit all outstanding pension contributions with the interest penalty to employees RSAs; submit progress reports to the commission of all recoveries made and challenges encountered; and perform any other duty that may be specified by the commission for ensuring compliance with the Pension Act. To make the job easier, the commission has assigned specific defaulting employers to each agent for the recovery of outstanding pension contributions including the interest penalty.
Each agent’s performance is being monitored based on set performance standards which would be documented in a Service Level Agreement (SLA) to be executed with the recovery agents.
Should these defaulting employers still fail to cooperate with the collecting agencies and remit the deducted pension contributions, the commission has hinted that it would have to take legal action against such employers.
Conclusion
Again, for some employers who pretend to have aligned themselves with the provision of the law, it has been observed that the contribution rates are not being remitted to the chosen PFAs.
Worse still, it was learnt that some employers under the guise of complying with the Pension Act are in the habit of deducting salaries of employees who are yet to open retirement savings accounts with any PFA. It can therefore not be ascertained where such money is going into.
While the defaulting employers are advised to desist from such acts, employees are encouraged to report defaulting employers to their PFAs, while the PFAs should equally not shirk their responsibility when it comes to notifying of such. This is one sure way to ensure the success of the contributory pension scheme in Nigeria.