By Ifeanyi Onuba, Abuja

Thursday, 25 Nov 2010

The National Pension Commission has said that its efforts at enforcing compliance under the Pension Reform Act of 2004 have recorded some progress.

Already, it said more companies in the private sector had opened Retirement Savings Accounts for their employees.

The commission in its 2009 annual report, released in Abuja on Wednesday, said that the number of such accounts opened during the period rose by 31 per cent, over the 2008 figures.

In the report, it also noted that 14 state governments had commenced the implementation of the scheme, while 10 others had drafted the pension bills to ensure compliance with the provision of the PRA 2004.

It said that the level of compliance by insurance companies improved in 2009, owing to continued engagement of the companies by PenCom with support from NAICOM.

It added that five out of the 40 insurance companies that were inspected had, however, not implemented the Contributory Pension Scheme.

The implication of this, according to the report, is that pension assets worth N15.31bn under their management, had not been transferred to licensed pension operators.

The report also said, as part of the collaboration with other stakeholders, “PenCom obtained the support of the Bureau for Public Procurement to ensure that any supplier, contractor, or consultant bidding or soliciting contract or business from any Federal Government’s ministry, department or agency must fulfill its obligations with respect to pensions as required under Section 16 of the Public Procurement Act 2007.”

It, had, therefore, issued a circular to all MDAs to ensure the implementation of the policy.

The report also added that it implemented a regime of sanctions during the year by issuing warning letters to 3,618 organisations for failing to comply with the PRA 2004 while monetary penalties were imposed on 1,797 organisations for continued violation of its provisions.

Similarly, the commission said public censure of 126 non-compliant organisations was carried out following their non-compliance, adding that the legal process for the prosecution of 87 out of the 126 organisations had begun.

Source: Punch