ABSTRACT
This research studied management of pension schemes in Nigeria public service. Using the Department of pensions/establishment Enugu State Public Service, as a case study.
The need for the study rose from the poor performance of the schemes which have resulted to a number of problems such as the unwillingness of old workers of relinquish office for the younger generation due to poor pension plans, bribery and corruption in the Public Service, low moral in work etc.
This research identified a number of problems investigated on their origin, sought the advise of experts and came up with a number of recommendation on the lapse found out during the research.
Due to the vast nature of pensions management in the Nigeria, the researcher narrowed the study to the Department of Pension/Establishment, Enugu State Public Service due to certain limitations. Background and need for the study, statement of problem, objectives of study theoretical framework, research question, significance of study, limitation of study were discussed in chapter one. All terms and acronyms were also defined in chapter one.
Chapter two reviewed all literature related to the study while chapter three deals with data presentation, analyses finding, recommendations and conclusion made by the researcher. With the recommendations, it was hoped that a lot of good will come to the management of pension schemes in Nigeria.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
Introduction 1
Background and Need for the Study 1
Problems Associating with the Subject Matter
Objectives of the Study 7
The Important of Studying the Area 9
Definition of Important Terms 11
References (Using A.P.A Method) 15
CHAPTER TWO
2.0 Literature Review 19
2.1 The origin of the Pension 20
2.2 Schools of Thoughts within the Pension Scheme
2.3 The School of though Relevant to the Problems Study
2.4 Different Methods of Studying the Problem,
2.5 Summary
2.6 References
CHAPTER THREE
Conclusion 40
3.1 Data Presentation 40
3.2 Analysis of Data 41
3.3 Recommendation 45
3.4 Conclusion 47
3.5 References 48
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 GENERAL BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR THE STUDY
The work that one does gives statues to the person. It also gives a meaning to life and feeling of contribution to general welfare. Work also permits a person to be active, energetic and to have constructive social interaction with others. Inspite of the fact that work brings fulfillment, one must retire from active service for one cannot deny the fact that as workers grow older, they make many adjustments and tend to develop gradually into a social group that is separate from the younger workers. Increasing physical and mental limitation associated with advancing age make it difficult for such people to work safely and competently thereby maintaining previous levels of performance. At the stage of retirement, the worker’s output reaches diminishing returns. It became necessary for the workers to stop working if his employer wants to minimize loss although not everyone would welcome the idea of retirement even with a generous pension.
Retirement, as defined by J. A. Donnelly et al (1992:326), is the changes in job situation whereby the individual gives up his job when diminishing return set in. Eze (2001:15) explained retirement as the stage where the employer is dissatisfied by the job performance of the employee.
The German chancellor, Otto Von Bismack in the 1880s, started the concept of retirement.
His public pension plan supported a retirement age of sixty-five years (65). Insurance companies began to use that retirement age in planning retirement and annuity programmes. Though the retirement age vary in countries and organizations, Nigeria operates one of the most generous pension scheme in the world. After ten years of service an employee qualifies for pension. An employee could then retire and enjoy the rest of his active life.
Result of Nigerian pension scheme is that the public service is seen as being more lucrative in terms of a person work life.
At the period of retirement, it is important that the future life of the worker be considered by planning for his welfare. This means to pay a consideration that will help the worker to go on with life. Several reasons have been given for the need fro such compensation. Prominent among the reasons is to provide economic security for the employee at retirement. Secondly, it guarantees the willingness of the younger generation to work and also see the organization as a good place to work in.
The compensation paid to the worker at retirement is known as pension. It is a contractual payment between the employer and the employee. The employer, after retirement, pays a state sum of money periodically over a stated period to the retired employee (Jerry et al, 1992:333). This money, as envisaged by economic planners, will then fulfill the three basic needs for the payment of pensions, which prominent among them is economic empowerment. Economic empowerment, through the payment of pensions is intended to be used in social welfare programmes whereby the worker that is retired is expected not to depend on the society for his livelihood. It is on this note that the federal government of Nigeria established the state pension scheme under decree 102 to 1979, which decreed that pensions be paid to retired workers effective from 1st April 1974. The decree put pension board under the Department of Establishment/pensions of the Nigeria Public Service.
The department then instructs the ministry of finance to pay. Precisely, the pension boards are to see, principally, to the welfare of the workers in the public service. The objectives for setting up these boards are not short of the objectives mentioned earlier about the reasons for the compensation of retired workers.
It is clear that the pension scheme has several shortcomings. It is also apparent that the downfall of any organization is never far from mismanagement. It is therefore of great importance to carryout a study on the management of pension schemes in Nigeria to find out the lapses.
The need fro the study be linked to economic empowerment, restoring the dignity of the worker and creating a place for the younger generation. The government is seen here, as the employer while the public servant is the employee the study will concentrate on management of the schemes and the areas of shortcomings. This important because Osuagwu (2002:12) have observed that bureaucratic bottlenecks are hindrances to management of pension schemes. He however contended that dwindling resources is not short of the reasons for such problems. This research will investigate the government and the pension managers to ascertain the origin of the problems.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The issue at the back of government mind while establishing the pension scheme is to provide the employee with a means of securing on retirement a standard of living reasonably consistent with that which they enjoyed while in service (Osuagwu: 2002:1). Several years later, we can see that the reverse has been the case. The worker dreads retirement, just like death. In developed countries, the worker looks up to retirement. The reasons for these are not short of mismanagement.
The management of pension schemes has made things so hard for the workers that a retiree has to travel long distances to get his pension paid. It has been observed that those who are retired, while pursuing pension papers in Abuja or Lagos end up running out of cash to sleep under bridges, railway stations, post offices, churches and mosques.
The head of service of the Federation Dr. Yayele Ahmed while addressing pension desk officer said, among other things, “pension schemes in Nigeria have become inefficient mainly due to inadequate funding, ignorance of employers, mismanagement of funds and gross indiscipline of pension managers”. The effect of those to our economic development could be very drastic. That is why this research is intended to suggest solutions to the problem of mismanagement of pension schemes as a hindrance to the fight against bribery, corruption and also the moves for national development. This research deals secondly with the problem of weak financial base as the most delimiting factor towards the management of pension schemes.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
This research has several objectives which together points to the ultimate goal of enhancing social welfare. These objectives are as follows:
To investigate whether non-payment of pensions can be blamed on the politician or on the economic situation of the country, which might leave government with little money to spend.
To explore the flow of workers that retires with the flow of funds from the Ministry of finance.
To investigate how concerned government is in terms of having a special monitoring and evaluation units to check on the excesses and short coming of pension managers.
To establish a relationship between the non-payment of pension and unwillingness to relinquish office after reaching retirement age.
To find out the extent of bribery/corruption in pension management.
To make necessary recommendations on these problems.
