ONGOING verification of former workers of the defunct National Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, will end tomorrow, February 6, 2015.
According to a release by the Federal Government ahead of the verification which began January 26, would affect 1,037 former staff defunct PHCN would be verified for the payment of their benefits.
This came as the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, faulted incessant verification of the ex-staff by government, saying it is used to perpetuate fraud.
General Secretary of the union, Comrade Joe Ajaero, lamented that disengaged workers of the defunct PHCN, yet to be paid their terminal benefits had been verified and done biometric capturing countless times, yet officials of government kept subjecting the hapless workers to verifications and biometric capturing.
According to him, money meant for payment of ther benefits had been released for a very long time, but deposited in a fixed account to yield interest.
According to him, “people are being called every now and then for biometric capturing and each time they organize biometric in the power sector, millions of naira is spent in the name of engaging consultants to carry out biometric capturing for the people that had been verified before. Some of them are going for the fourth biometric capturing. This process started before privatization, it is still on and the money meant for the payment of their benefits fixed in a commercial bank, yielding interest for government officials.
Verification exercise
Meanwhile, Implementation Committee on Terminal Benefits of the ex-workers explained in a statement that the verification exercise would be carried out at nine designated centres across the country.
The committee headed by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Power, Ambassador Godknows Igali, also drew out verification check lists for PHCN Pensioners and next-of-Kin and severance.
The check-list for the three categories of persons to be verified, listed out documents to be presented by all beneficiaries at the nine designated payment centres.
Speaking on the restiveness of the disengaged workers, Chief of Staff to the Minister of Power, Professor Chidi Onyia, said Nigerians deserved to have adequate information to have informed position of the issues involved. He claimed President Goodluck Jonathan had demonstrated a clear understanding of the nation’s labour law which informed his directives to the handlers of Severance Package to be diligent in the validation processes, noting that government did not want to pay ghost workers.
Onyia claimed N372 billion had already been paid to disengaged ex-PHCN workers, stressing that government had always treated its workers with utmost dignity and respect. He debunked insinuations that government had remained insensitive to the plight of the disengaged workers, saying the Minister had directed that all issues pertaining to this must be resolved on time.
by ROTMANLUV 2023-07-08, 17:34
