LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter will focus on identifying and reviewing previous closely related studies on the problem under investigation. Thus, the relevant and related literature on the problem under study and indicated on the management and administration in Nigeria Local government System will be thoroughly reviewed, because an academic research project is a cumulative enterprise.
According to Luckman (1992: 288-289) the purpose of the literature review is to expand upon the context and background of the study, to help further define the problem and to provide an
empirical basis for the hypothesis.
In tandem and Tuckman’s assertion, the researcher will review previous studies that are closely related to challenges of pension administration in Nigeria Local government System and indeed a study of Ebonyi State imparticular for maximum empirical and theoretical benefits.
OVERVIEW: Until the present time the issue of pension made in news or had any serious attention and interest of many writes and as a result, no much work has been done in this regard, particularly in Ebonyi State.
The Local point here, is pension and gratuity which is synonymous with retirement and old age. S.A.U Osuagwu:1997 saw pension as a promise of an employer which he grants his employee after retirement and gratuity as a lump sum payment usually granted immediately upon the retirement of officer.
We shall proceed to discuss other writers views on retirement for the purpose of perspicality. Robert C. Ashly:1981 States that the process of retirement involved the transition people experience when they move a job role performed for pay to the role of a retired person.
Peter O. Morakingo: 1996 sees pension as a period when the major focus of life and living one self preservation and self esteem in consonance with self actualization or the achievement of what gives measuring to life ultimately.
People especially in Nigeria appear have negative feelings about retirement is a difficult, often negative experience seems wide spread, as Evelyn Easton White head and James D. White head: 1983 state pension is not a harmogenous experience. For each individual what it will mean to retire will dramatically affected by health, family, situation, inters and skills, gender and social class and by the money on which one will live.
It is observed that while these individuals differences remains, these are similarities and trends that are important as well. There is evidence that the 19505 in America wage earners and salaried workers who had the option to retire at sixty five years of age before were increasingly choosing to do so, but during the 19805 in Nigeria. People were considering early retirement because many forced into prepared for retirement Amos Omore:1987. In developed countries, retirement the choice of most people but round about the 19705 the word retirement experienced and expressed about.
Retirement tend to inhabit the flexible response to the real requirement choice of how one’s post retirement years will be lived. Evelyn Whitehead and James White head: 1983 suggested that retirement should not catch a person totally unwanted use the term “rehearsal for retirement” to refer to how people shall prepare for year of retirement.
Chris Ogbonnaya: 1995 threw the picture on how anxiety and concern are always exposed on the face of a workers leaving employment either when family through retirement or involuntarily through retirement.
Bernice Navgation: 1975 reveals the trend of health looking retired men and women who still show affluence and equally vigorously participated in social and Civil life. The above is further corroborated by this statement ____the attitude and life experiences of these young ___ old life contradict the negative expections of their retirement as a time of disintegration and disengagement. Evelyn and James White head: 1983.
Retirement should be seen as a time of significant transition or change in the matter of living arrangement and other though provoking question James B. asbook: 1975 states: transition makes the sharpness of the ageing process. Yet transition characteristics every age: from the womb to the world from the home to the School: from the School to the work: from the living with one’s natural family: from seeking to become settled in: from many involvement to fewer involvement: from middle age to later matanity and to old age. Transition anticipated, remembered, known, experienced, feard-distiguished events from the orgoing.
The awareness of change symbolizes our peculizing human predicament.
To be retired is to be old, at least as society seas it one of the challenges of retirement experienced is to come to terms with what it means to be identified as older person. Many retired persons have a healthy resisted once to being indenfified as old. Evelyn white head and James white head: 1983. Omoreseni: 1987 spolyghted the strange experience in the middle state of retirement transition which involves, disorientation and enxiety and stated that a retired person will find a satisfying way to live. This name experience and to confrecate to the community and to enjoy leises without feeling guity.
Naturally to come for the young generation without middling and to find a new indications of personal value and work a part from social and economic productivity.
About 80% of peopsioners and responsibility to attend to financially and might want to make some investiments to make ends met. Ola, C.S: 1994 opined that before retirement, one must take stock of his present wealth to project into the future and must work out what ones income and expenditure are likely to be on that project. It is advisable to fund that project before going on retirement and work out how long it will take to make viable.
In consideration of all it takes to retire, government therefore has to prepare and manage the administration of pension both at the government level and the manage of individual retire.
U. Udoka: 1977 stated that it is in adviable for any one to purchase a business about which he or she knows little, unless he has a satisfactory linecip of management staff organized for its continued viability.
Pension administration has finance its. Main focus and the problems interest in all financial and administration control fund is applicable to pension administration as Oguonu Chika N. 1977quites God Oworoli in identifying management of finance is profit maximization while according to Raymon E. Owen: 1983 financial management in the public sector entails a specialized bureabatic attempt to mange money so as to accomplish certain objective.
Public financial management equally search for precision and efficiency adopting techniques of decisions in routine fashion as carbult, Douglas: 1971 sees financial management in the public sector as the management the deals with the flow of funds in an establishment. It can be described as the making of decision or financial matters facilitating and receiving their execution.
It should be borne in mind that administration is some what targeted and this applies to the process by which a particular policy or programme distributes fund to help a particular group or class.
2.1 pension reform Act 2004: The pension Reform act 2004 is a paradigin shift in the management and administration of person in Nigeria (Moses, 2007). The policy frame work of pension payment in the past based on the pension Act 1979 was based on the defined b
enefit scheme where government took the responsibility of providing totally for the pension of her employees. However the pension Reform Act 2004 policy’s frame work is based on the defined contribution scheme which makes the manifestation of abuse of office by government officials dishonest, unethical behaviour disrespect to the law, favoritism, in drawing up policy proposals, gross inefficiency covering up mistakes and failure to shower initiative.
With these inherent problems loose stated above, we should not management is all about especially in government business.
According to C.S.Nwoko: 1990 “financial management is an aspect of management and is enssencially concerned with planning and control of the resource of a firm or an establishment with a view to the attainment of set objective”.
The financial management of pension fund is strictly governed and guided by elaborated rules, regulations and guide lines. The most important among these is the degree 102 of 1979 as contained in the official Gazette extraordinary No.48, Vol. 68, 1979. The general outlay of financial management in the public sector is quite different from what obtained in the private sector. In the private sector, employers and employees contribute monthly a certain amount towards the pension of the employees (section 9 (pension return Act, 2004, Act prescribes a minimum mandatory contribution rate of 75% of an employee for all salary by the employee for all organizations that employ five or more persons except the military where the minimum contribution rates are 120.5% by the employer and 2.5% by the employee.
Apart from the technical issues of the new pension is to be administered as contained in the Act, the pension Reform 2004 in section 14 (1) established a regulatory body to Oversea the implemention of the provision of the Act. The section states that: there is a established a body to be known as the National pension commission (in this Act refered to as the commission.)
This commission, which also refered to as pension for short, in empowered by the act to under take various responsibilities. The roles of Reform, its powers, composition, functions and its challenges as thus relate to the new era of pension administration in Nigeria are examined with a view to providing suggestions for its reform in order for it to achieve its objectives efficiently.
Despite this Act pension programmes in Nigeria has generated lot of problems and concern both locally and abroad. With elderly people queing for long hours and some dying in the process for just their widows-mite which these are entitled to after spending their active life in the service of their various organizations or establishments, it become necessary to examine the laws that governed pension administrations and home up with recommendations that would ensure prompt payments of pensions and also advocate for provisions of adequate funds for such payments I order to forestall the erratic and irregular payments problems. The pension reform Act, 2004 (“the Act”) was passed into law on the 25th June 2004 by the national assembly, repealing the pension Act, 1979 and amending the NSITF Decree of 19993 to achieve the set objectives.
Although the reform remains a very positive move to ensure that
B Data gathering challenges among the function of the commission it is required to maintains a data bank for pension matter in the country. This is an enerous-challenges for the commission in a country with scanty data-infrastructure and inefficient electrical facilities and a thriving civil service population-over 260,000 of them (work bank 2005) coupled with other personnel –such as the military, and ghost workers problems, managing data gathering and regulation at the same time may be quite a challenges for the commission .the reform also requires that many employees with 5 or more staff can join the scheme thus according to the world bank (2005) membership from the informal sectors is not million. Pension as of today does not have capacity to deal with that number.
© Enlightment problems
as noted earlier many workers are not aware about the commission‘s activities and duties. Also many employees and employers likewise do not understand the provision of the pension reform Act,2004, its implications and obligations. There are also some ambiguities in that act that needs clarification like: questions as to pension in nigreia are effectively administered, the system of oeration and even the act still posses some challenges.
Give this ambiguity in the literature especially theoretical studies it seems logical to appraise the performance of the national pension commission on pension-administration in Nigeria local government system.
2.2 national pension commission (pencon):Need for reform.
A composition Issues
This is about the composition of commission. It must noted here that most of the members of the commission are government appointees or representatives and have its affairs would be subject to government control and influence (Ojujoh 205). This is a challenges for the commission because the act covers both the public sector and the private sector hence there might be no balance decisions from the commission especially with regard to the private sector of the country which id supposed to be the engine of economic development in the country.
Whether expatriates are covered, transfer of old schemes and fax-status of payments made from old schemes other include the lack of specific minimum percentage of renumeration that must be repented by the components of environment defined as basic housing and transport allowance. It is the job the commission to educate the members of the public on these issues. Doing this is a daunting task which a lot of zest and courage.
D) Monitoring and transitional challenges:
The Act took effect in 2005 without any period of adjustment from the old provision: This is a challenges for the commission because it takes time to learn and master a new system. Most of the licensed P F A’s and custodians would challenge the commissin in terms of law their affairs are monitored and evaluated. Also the commission roles although spelt out by the Act would fasted by the reality pf pat ice. The issue of contribution evasion is a paramount challenge be because some employers would want to evade the scheme by not been registered or not register all of their employees portraying some as contract workers or belonging to other categories that be considered as non-workers (oyedde,2007).
Also implementing sanctions to erring agencies by the commission would bring out whether the commission is actually internally strengthened to deliver the needed oversight function it is man dated by the to perform.
2.4 pension scheme and related issues:
guideline on the management and administration of pension schemes the public service reflect the nature and type of schemes that exist. Thus the guidelines for managing the schemes in the core civil service are different from those for managing g the schemes in the parastatals. The core civil service schemes has the selt administered type of pension scheme. It is non-contributory and it is not funded: it is the office of establishment the civil service scheme, instead of pension board of trustees as in the case of parasta
tals.
Its management and administration of the scheme are guided by the pension laws and other government plices which are announced from time to time in it is selt administered.The above is as it is contained in the review of the management pension schemes of parastatals and other organization funded by the federal government pen, 921/5.28/195 of 30th January 1997.
2.4.1 Scheduled service
the scheduled serice or authority is a public service item listed in scheduled 2 decree No102 of 1979. it applied to organizations which operate schemes-comparable to the civil service pensions as approved in the Act. An officer may be transferred from the public service of the federation to a public scheduled service of from or from a scheduled service to the public service of the federation and from one scheduled authority to another and yet retains the benefits of the contimity of service for pension purposes.
Classification as scheduledservice are government oened agencies, statutory co-operations, companies parastals and commissions. For an officer to retains thebenefit of continuity of service for pension purposes, movements between scheduled organization in the public service must be by formal transfer and not by resignation. The need for organization or quas-government bodies to be establishment:- cicculars. Two types of retirement benefits schemes have been adopted by parastatals at the federal level. These insured and self-administrate red schemes.
An insured schemed is the type that directectly administrate red and managed by an under writer, it involves the regular payment of premiums to the insures. The premium varies are determined by an actually on the basis of a number of factors, such as the level and form of benefits, the number and length of service of staff.
The investment of the funds of an insured schemes is subject to the insurance Decrees No.2 of 1997 and the self-administered scheme on the other hands, it is one administrate red and managed by the trustees of the fund. The responsibility of investing the funds of the scheme and the day to day running of the scheme rest on them.
However, the Ebonyi State Local Government staff pension board is the categories and form of parastatals whose pension scheme are equal non-contributions and not funded, it adopted the board room approach in the management and administration of the scheme.
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