Over 800 illegal ghost accounts used to siphon pension funds were uncovered by the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD, the acting Director General Mr. Murtala Musa Oluwatoyin has said.

Mr. Oluwatoyin disclosed this at the weekend in a chat with newsmen saying that at the moment all the accounts were found from different banks, “which we have passed to ICPC for further investigation. We have signed MoU with ICPC so these things can be addressed. It’s an ongoing process” he said adding that the Bank Verification Number (BVN) is also being deployed to fish out ghost ‘pensioners’.

He assured that the monies being saved have been used to settle some outstanding 33 percent pension arrears and perpetrators of the corruption will be investigated by the ICPC and brought to justice.

“We don’t have the power to ask the banks to review those behind the accounts but the ICPC has the power to ask the banks for the information. With time, the ICPC will unravel them” he assured.

He said he hasn’t put an exact figure of savings on the account but the figure will be made public.

“We haven’t put a figure on it because we keep making fresh discoveries. Again, some names that we remove, the owners do come back with proof they are real but have been inactive because of ill health or some other reasons. Those ones, we readmit them and pay them. We keep reconciling the accounts. But at the end of the year, we can sit down and take stock and say for this year, this is the savings on the accounts that have been removed” he assured.

He resumed at PTAD on March 15, 2016 following the suspension of erstwhile Executive Secretary/Director General PTAD, Mrs. Nellie Mayshak, by the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun over corruption allegations.
Daily Trust