Reps Begin Probe Of Mismanagement Of Pension Funds

The House of Representatives on Thursday commenced investigation into petitions bordering on alleged mismanagement of pension funds by AIICO Pension Managers and Fidelity Pension respectively.

Speaking at the hearing, Chairman of the House Committee on Pension Hon. Kabir Alhassan Rurum (APC, Kano) frowned at the attitude of the two companies for not honouring the House invitation.

He said the House will not accept any presentation from representatives of the PFAs especially when there was no written communication to the House mandating them to do so.

Speaking to newsmen after the brief session, the chairman said: “The Committee has the constitutional rights and mandate to invite anybody in the pension industry to come and explain issues of public importance. And we didn’t summon them; we only invited them to come because the Pension Reform Act of 2014 has given us the right to do so.

“Moreover, there are a lot of complaints and counter complaints against AIICO and Fidelity Pension. Based on that, they were invited. But unfortunately, the Managing Directors or Chief Executive Officers of the two important agency refused to come. Based on that, the committee decided that they appear in person.”

The Regional Manager of AIICO Pension, Temitope Ajegboje, told the lawmakers that they got the invite on Friday, but that the Managing Director could not honour the invitation because of medical emergency.

A member of the committee, Hon. Chudi Momah said even if the MD wasn’t going to be present, it shouldn’t have been the Regional Manager that should represent him, more so that there was no written authorisation empowering him to answer critical questions from the committee.

Hon. Momah therefore moved that the MDs and CEOs must make themselves available to the committee or face the consequences therefrom.

-NATION