ICPC partners PTAD to curb pension fraud

The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), says it has entered into partnership with the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) to eliminate pension fraud.

ICPC’s spokesperson, Mrs Rasheedat Okoduwa, in a statement in Abuja on Monday, quoted Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, the commission’s Chairman as disclosing this when Mrs Sharon Ikeazor, Executive Secretary, PTAD, visited him in office.

Owasanoye said that one of the innovations of the commission since his assumption of office was the putting up of information on the commission’s website to serve as a guide to the public on the kinds of matters that should be reported to it.

This, he said, was so that some of the issues that were supposed to be handled by PTAD went to them directly via a link to their website.

Owasanoye explained that by clicking on the petition dropdown menu on ICPC’s website, PTAD was one of the links displayed, which the public could use to send petitions, complaints or comments on petition matters directly to them.

The chairman expressed concern that pension phone scam – a type of pension fraud perpetrated through the use of mobile phones – had become a very big challenge to the society.

“We would therefore like ICPC and PTAD to really work hard together to tackle the menace,” he said.

Earlier, Ikeazor, Executive Secretary, PTAD, said that the aim of the visit to ICPC was to share ideas and express some of the agency’s concerns over increasing cases of the fraud in the country.

The PTAD secretary said that her office was regularly inundated with cases of pension scam in the discharge of their duties often perpetrated by fraudsters, and sometimes by the pensioners themselves or their next-of-kin.

Ikeazor commended ICPC for its unflinching support during field verification exercises.

“Ever since my assumption of office, each time we go for field verification, I always request from ICPC to have your operatives present to monitor us.

“This is to curb the fraudsters and I would say it has been a fruitful partnership,” she said.(NAN)