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The Federal
Government is responsible for the problems of the pension fund account
of the Nigeria Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and its mobile
subsidiary, Mobile Telecommunication Limited (MTEL), a senior staff of
the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), disclosed this last Thursday.

The source added
that in 2001, following the first privatisation process, the federal
government ordered that non-core assets of NITEL be transferred to the
pension fund account of the company. Further, in 2009, the federal
government decided to offset outstanding salary arrears of the
NITEL/MTEL workers and mandated an accounting firm, Olusola Adekanola
& Co, the court- appointed NITEL liquidator, to borrow N3 billion
from the accounts of NITEL/MTEL Staff Pension Fund in liquidation and
use it to pay the arrears with the aim of repaying from money realised
from the sale of the national carrier.

The money was meant
to pay five months from the 27 months salary owed the workers. December
last year, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) said that the money
would be paid to the workers in three tranches with the first tranche
due that month.

This was done, said
the source, but the remaining two tranches are still outstanding till
date. The agreement reached between the parties appeared to have gone
sour leading to the liquidator formally pulling out in February this
year.

In an advertorial
placed in a newspaper last February, Olusola Adekanola, the liquidator
said, “the monies left in the liquidation account are from the sale of
assets whose ownership was being contested by Transcorp, which has so
far refused to hand over the title documents, even though these assets
clearly belong to the NITEL/MTEL Staff Pension Fund (in Liquidation).

“I am not at
liberty to distribute the proceeds of assets whose sale has not been
concluded, as doing so will jeopardise the position of the buyers of
the assets and subject the liquidation process to serious litigations
from these new owners. It is unfortunate that this liquidation process
and welfare of NITEL/MTEL staff have been caught in the crossfire
associated with the privatisation of NITEL and the entire Transcorp
issue.

“I am privileged to
know that the federal government has fully settled all exposures of
Transcorp to a local bank (to the tune of about N45 billion) and I
cannot understand why these 27 months’ salary arrears of NITEL workers
defaulted by Transcorp were not off-set and reconciled before the
bailout,” said Mr. Adekanola.

Government is holding the papers

However, another
source from the BPE explained that the initial plan of the federal
government was to payoff Transcorp from money that would be realised
from the sale of NITEL and after all debts including workers’ salaries
have been settled.

“You know that the
government was to refund over N63 billion back to Transcorp. I learnt
that the federal government decided to raise a bond to pay back the
banks Transcorp said to have taken loan from to pay for NITEL. However,
I am not sure if that was what the government finally did”.

The source
confirmed the liquidators’ claim that some title papers were still with
the federal government was true and that investigation into the
liquidation of NITEL non-core assets were on.

“The federal
government set up a committee from the technical board to do a review
of the relevant Certificates of Occupancy and reconciliation to
establish those that are missing. Investigation is still going on with
Transcorp management and some of the C of O is with security agencies,”
said the source.

Since 2009,
NITEL/MTEL workers have written letters and carried out protests over
the non-payment of their 27 months arrears. But the question remains
over the fund’s balance and accrued interest, if any. Last week, nobody
was willing to speak at the liquidators office in Opebi, Ikeja, Lagos,
on what has happened to the balance of the N3 billion and how much has
been paid out so far.

“The liquidator is
not in the country to respond to your question. I will inform you when
he is available, so that you can revisit in order for him to grant you
the interview,” said B.O. Ajadi, director of Operation of the firm.

Similarly, Chukwuma
Nwokoh, BPE spokesperson said he does not know the total amount that
was spent by the liquidator to pay the NITEL workers.

“I don’t know about
the total amount that was used by the NITEL liquidator to pay the NITEL
workers their one month salary. So, I don’t know the balance from what
was left from the N3 billion because he did not take the entire N3
billion from the pension fund account, he only paid one month,” said
Mr. Nwokoh.

“What we are
concerned about now is for the presidency to take its decision on how
to settle the workers their arrears,” he added.

Over the last nine
years, controversy has dogged repeated attempts by the government to
get a buyer for the beleaguered telephone company. A report last week
said that the Taskforce on NITEL/MTEL labour restructuring, chaired by
the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Emeka Wogu explained that the
cost of settling outstanding salaries and disengagement entitlements
for NITEL staff is N24.71 billion, while that of MTEL is N4.76 billion
totalling N29.47billion.

In a telephone
interview, Emmanuel Abu, the chairman of Senior Staff Association of
Communications, Transport and Corporations (SSACTAC), NITEL, Abuja,
questioned the rationale for government’s action.

“We wrote to the
presidency on why they had to pay Transcorp N45 billion when the
workers have not been paid and advised that workers arrears for the
period Transcorp was in charge should be deducted from the sum before
paying Transcorp. Whatever the government is doing with the process of
NITEL is not sincere, they should just pay off the workers, so that
Nigerians would know that NITEL no longer exists,” added Mr. Abu.

In February 2010, BPE reported that it had concluded the sale of
NITEL with New Generations Telecommunications Consortium emerging as
the preferred bidder with $2.5 billion for 75 per cent equity of NITEL.
The bid’s fate is unknown as government has been foot-dragging on
handing NITEL over to the firm.