The National Pension Commission has described as false a report on the alleged humongous salary paid to the commission’s employees.
According to the report, the lowest-paid PenCom employee is paid N3m per month.
However, a statement released to the press by the commission’s management described the report as a “false allegation and unfair insinuation,” adding that the commission’s highest paid official was earning less than N1m.
The statement read, “Following the false and misleading information on the compensation package of the National Pension Commission (PenCom) being circulated in the traditional and social media, it has become necessary to set the record straight in the interest of the Nigerian public.
‘’It is being alleged that the least paid PenCom employee earns a salary of N3m per month. This has fuelled all sorts of false allegations and unfair insinuations. The public is invited to note that the claim is absolutely false. The highest paid official of the Commission earns less than N1m a month. It is therefore completely illogical and improbable that the least paid will earn a monthly salary of N3m.
“We understand that there is an element of mischief and possible blackmail on the Commission’s compensation package. From our understanding, it appears someone calculated all staff costs, including training, staff exit benefit scheme, and employer’s pension contribution, and divided the total by the number of the Commission’s employees and concluded that the least paid employee is on a monthly salary of N3 million. There is a clear difference between staff cost and staff salaries.
“It is imperative to point out that right from the inception of the Commission in 2004, the Federal Government mandated the Board to adopt an employee compensation policy that favourably compares to comparator government bodies in the financial services sector, such as the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Securities and Exchange Commission section 25(2)(b) of the Pension Reform Act 2014 also empowers the Board of the Commission to fix the remuneration, allowances and benefits of the employees.’’