The Federal Government, on Thursday, commenced the training programme for the inter-agency committee to monitor and evaluate the Federal Executive Council approvals relating to outstanding death benefits, allowances, insurance, etc, of the Nigeria Police Force.
It started the training at the headquarters of the National Salaries Incomes and Wages Commission. The training has its theme as, “Monitoring of the Implementation of Approved Allowance and Off-setting of Outstanding Pension Arrears, Death Benefits and Other Related Matters.”
In his address at the opening ceremony, the Chairman, NSIWC, Ekpo Nta, said, “I welcome all the stakeholders to this very important inter-agency training programme set up to monitor the implementation of Federal Executive Council approvals about the implementation of allowances, payment of outstanding death benefits, etc, on December 15, 2021 which is being anchored by the NSIWC.
“Recall that as a fallout of the #EndSARS protests in October 2020, (former) President Muhammadu Buhari requested the NSIWC to expedite action on the review of the remunerations of the Nigeria Police Force.
“NSIWC undertook in-depth nationwide studies of the issues relating to the remunerations and conditions of service of the NPF through open and informal interactions with various stakeholders including the top hierarchy, rank and file of the NPF, the Ministry of Police Affairs, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, the Budget Office of the Federation, and the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President.”
Nta said the NSIWC, during the assignment, obtained detailed information on the NPF budget requests, approved appropriations and actual disbursements for a period spanning 10 years.
He said the commission also looked at the conditions of service and other related matters.
He said, “All of the commission’s very detailed recommendations listed below were approved by the Federal Executive Council at its meeting on December 15, 2021, with an effective commencement date of January 1, 2022.
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“Some highlights of the approvals include the following: a) Increase of the rent subsidy; b) Review of shift duty/supervision allowance for all entitled police personnel; c) A new peculiar allowance; d) tax waivers for all junior police personnel as enjoyed by the military.
“Others include e) payment of outstanding death benefits for the uninsured period of 2013 to August 24, 2021, not covered under the Group Life Assurance; f) the payment of outstanding benefits to entitled personnel for the uninsured period of 2013 to 2020 not covered under the Group Personal Accident Insurance.
“And, g) payment of outstanding burial expenses of personnel! for the period from.January 2012 to July 2021; h) priority payments of annual insurance premiums for Group Personal Accident Insurance to cover immediate payment of benefits to beneficiaries, and Property Insurance to provide cover repairs/replacement of damaged police infrastructure.”
He said the recommendations also include priority payment of future Group Life Assurance premiums in future budgets to cover immediate payment of death benefits to beneficiaries.
Nta said the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning would engage with the Nigeria Police Force and work out a realistic annual overhead budget that would enable the NPF to pay approved non-regular allowances.
“NSIWC should examine and present recommendations in respect of retirement benefits (pension and exit packages) for the Nigeria Police Force and other related agencies.
“NSIWC should institute a mechanism for the regular monitoring of the payment of salaries and allowances of the Nigeria Police Force through electronic and physical platforms in line with extant regulations and conditions of service,” he stated.
According to Nta, “Today (Thursday) marks the commencement of the exercise to train all the selected inter-agency participants in the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the approvals.”
He said the committee had been charged to carry out the exercise diligently without fear or favour so that the government would know and address any bottlenecks.
“I pray for their safety as they undertake nationwide tours. I sincerely thank the Nigeria Police Force and NSIWC for providing counterpart funding for this very crucial exercise,” Nta stated.
