The Director General of the Pension Commission, A’isha Umar has denied the allegation that the commission pays staff N2.4 million per month.
In her statement, PENCOM DG who appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Finance has said, although the commission pays high salaries but no one earns N1 million per month.
The lawmakers had discovered that the commission budgeted N12 billion for 500 staff in one year.
Aminu Suleiman, a member of the Committee from Kano State, said with a budget of N12 billion for 500 staff, it means on average, a staff goes home with N24 million per year.
“An average of N2.4 million per month. Are you telling me that the most junior personnel in Pencom earns as much as N2.4 million per month?” he said.
Responding, the DG claimed that the N12 billion is for other expenses including training.
“We have to train staff. We have to avoid what is known as regulatory capture. What this means is that our staff will compromise. As we are now, when we go to examine the operators, we don’t take more than drinking water from them. We don’t compromise because our staff are well paid. We must earn more than the entity we regulate,” she said.
The lawmakers were not satisfied with the explanation, the Committee resolved that the details of the salaries of the commission must be submitted to the committee within a week.
