Ondo HoS advocates seamless transition of retiring public officers from salary payroll to pension

The Ondo State Head of Service, Bayo Philip, has called on relevant stakeholders in the public service to ensure timely processes of terminal benefits of all retiring officers such that they can begin to enjoy their pension the following month after their last salary in service.

Philip, who was addressing Permanent Secretaries and other Accounting Officers at his maiden meeting with them at the Cocoa Conference Hall of the Governor’s Office in Akure on Wednesday, frowned at a situation whereby retirees would be running around still processing documentation months after retiring from office.

The Head of Service therefore mandated the offices of the state Accountant General, Auditor General, the State and Local Government Pension Transitional Departments, the State Teaching Service Commission, Civil Service Commission and other relevant stakeholders to immediately convene a meeting to fashion out modalities to achieve automatic and smooth migration of retiring officers from salary payroll to pension payroll without unnecessary encumbrances.

According to him, “one of my areas of focus is how do we reduce the rigour associated with pension payment or pension documentation. We will need your ingenuity. We can have a seamless way of transiting to pension the succeeding month after the last salary of officers in service.”

He urged workers to always put in their best in the service as a way of reciprocating the good gesture of the government towards their welfare, saying they should not “deliver short, not deliver late.”

He Used the occasion to appreciate Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa for his recent appointment of more Permanent Secretaries in the state and local government services.

The HoS enjoined the Accounting Officers to champion the required changes in the service for effective service delivery, adding that the era when morale of workers were low due to backlog of salary arrears were gone.

“Now government is not owing us but even doing top up; we have N35,000 wage award, we have palliative buses. I want to implore us to galvanize the younger officers and show them by example that they need to be more committed to this work,” he said.