PenCom recovers N11b from non-remittance of contributions

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has disclosed that it had recovered over N11 billion between 2013 till date from erring firms through its recovering agents.

PenCom’s Secretary and Legal Adviser, Muhammad Muhammad, confirmed this at a two-day workshop organised by the commission for finance, pension, insurance, labour correspondents and business editors, in Calabar, the Cross River State capital.

Muhammad, who maintained that non-remittance is a criminal offence, said the commission, was working with the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) to ensure all outstanding contributions were remitted.

According to him, the issue of non-remittance could come in form of when a company have not been deducting from the word go and as such, the pension liabilities will have to accumulate, adding that in a situation like that, the Commission’s recovery agents go in to recover both principal funds and the penalty for non-remittance.

On the other hand, he said, a situation where employers will deduct money but will not remit it, such a company would be handed over to criminal investigating department for appropriate action.

On whether there had been situations when the Commission handed over companies to EFCC in the past, he said it was mostly those transiting from the insured pension scheme into the new scheme.

He stated: “While handling issues of people transiting from the insured pension scheme into the new scheme, you see a situation where companies hold on to funds and don’t remit it or others will tell you that they have transferred it to insurance companies. In this situation, we engage the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and they will then take the appropriate measure to ensure the funds are transferred to the Pension Funds Administrators (PFAs) and Pension Funds Custodians (PFCs).