Jackpot: PHCN staff share FG’s N373bn

The National Council on Privatisation (NCP) has affirmed that a total sum of N373.17 billion has been paid to staff of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) as entitlements.

While commending the progress achieved by the Implementation Committee on the payment of the severance, pension and gratuity of the workers and retirees of PHCN, the council also noted that 46,744 staff out of the 47,913 bonafide members of staff, representing 98 per cent of the workforce, had been paid their entitlements.

The council, nevertheless, directed that the Implementation Committee should handover to BPE all information and documents concerning outstanding active staff and pensioners verifications and payments.

It further directed that processes on all the outstanding cases be resumed until the final resolution of the exercise.

In a recent briefing to the NCP, Director General, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr. Benjamin Dikki, had said 1,169 workers were yet to be paid their entitlements.

He said the outstanding number included workers who had exited before severance payment; those being processed for validation; as well as those yet to be identified by PHCN as bonafide workers.

He said the working group was looking into these cases to arrive at a final closure.

However, the council, in a statement signed by BPE spokesman, Mr. Chigbo Anichebe, noted that 2,791 retired staff of the PHCN representing 65 per cent of the retirees had been paid N16,414,926,902.38 with an outstanding number of 1,516 retirees who have so far failed to turn up for verification or were still undergoing further verification or their next of kin have not been able to produce the necessary court papers.

-This Day, April 23, 2015

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