By Evelyn Omotoye
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The Director- General of the Ondo State Pension Commission (OSPEC), Mr. Jaiyeola Olowosuko has said that the state has not defaulted since it commenced the Contributory Pension Scheme, (CPS), 2014.
Olowosuko stated this in an interview with The Hope in his office while reacting to a report relating to the deductions of the CPS in the state .
The OSPEC DG who maintained that the Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu-led administration of Ondo State is committed to ensuring full implementation of the scheme, said it has remitted all the pension funds consistently since it came on board.
His words: “For all the newly recruited workers in the state since we commenced the CPS, the state is not owing any deductions.
“You would recall that when we commence the scheme, we made an administrative decision to start deducting from those who are newly employed into the state service.
“Why we did this was to prevent them from having past service which is affecting the old workers”, he explained.
He recalled that: “The reason we didn’t start full blown was that Nigeria as an economy was facing challenges, salaries were not being paid and we couldn’t deduct the pension fund because the CPS is hinged on salary, that is, 7.5percent from worker and 7.5percent from government
“Are we going to deduct pension from what we didn’t get? That was why we didn’t start for everyone. It was intentional because we don’t want to default like some other states that are owing. What you can’t finish, don’t start”, he stated.
He noted that almost all the backlog of salaries has been cleared by the present Akeredolu government in the state which according to him would make possible full implementation of the CPS .
“So right now, full implementation of CPS is under the front burner of this administration”, saying not too long from now, deductions would be made from every worker’s salary for the scheme as and when due.
“The full blown implementation of the CPS would involve Actuarial Valuation, Group Life Insurance as well as provision of Redemption Bond that will take care of the workers’ past services”, he added.
On the awareness by workers, the OSPEC boss said though workers had earlier been well sensitized on the scheme, officials of the National Pension Commission, (PENCOM), will soon be in the state to meet with the stakeholders.
“We are expecting officials from PENCOM soon, to come and meet with various top MDAs, some of which are autonomous or self governing such as OSOPADEC, LGSC, tertiary institutions in the state and others.
