Reps investigate PTAD for spending over N379m to recover UK funds

On Thursday, the House of Representatives announced plans to probe the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate’s (PTAD) conduct including the payment of over N379 million to agents in order to recover a £25 million investment fund in the United Kingdom.

The question was posed by House Committee Chairman James Faleke during the ongoing interactive session with the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper MTEF/FSP. At the National Assembly, Ministries, Departments, and Agencies are represented.

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The senator questioned why the agency would use agents to repatriate monies invested with Crown Agents of the United Kingdom worth such a large sum, in contravention of international best practices for fund recovery.
He questioned agency officials about whether it was appropriate to waste pensioners’ and taxpayers’ money on such recoveries on agents, since the global practice is to employ the agency’s legal department for such recoveries.

According to him, the House Committee is worried about the predicament of retirees in the country who are supposed to be beneficiaries of such invested monies but are due several months of salary and even allowance arrears by the agency.

“PTAD is not a revenue generating agency but there is this fund that is meant for pensioners that we are concerned about.”How do you employ a recovery agency to get these funds back? It has been claimed that pensioners are owed over N30 million in pension arrears?”

Dr. Chioma Ejikeme, Executive Secretary of PTAD, indicated in her statement that the money were intended to be transferred to the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN) and the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC).

According to her, the agency received presidential authorization in 2018 to transfer monies from Crown Agents to the Agency.

Dr. Ejikeme further stated that one million pounds of seized cash were utilized to offset the obligations of several privatized government entities.