‘PCC fails to remit staff’s NHIS, PenCom deductions’

By Lubem Gena
Abuja

The Public Complaints Commission (PCC) is alleged to have been caught in the web of massive corruption and unhealthy practices going on in its operations, Blueprint investigation has revealed.
Blueprint investigations revealed that on 11th and 12th October 2016, staff of the commission embarked on street protest, which also saw them airing their grievances to the National Assembly, during which the they were assured that their plight would be comprehensively addressed.

One of the inside sources in the commission, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told our correspondent that the problem in the commission started when the present Chief Commissioner, Mr. Emmanuel Ogbile took over the management of the commission.
The source said, Ogbile refused to appear before the National Assembly to “lobby” them to appropriate enough resources that would make for efficient and effective management of the commission, which has offices in all the states of the federal and also has 37 commissioners which are drawn from each state of the federation as well as the federal capital territory. Consequent upon that singular action, the commission got a budget shortfall of about N2 billion in the 2016 fiscal year as compared to N4billion which was appropriated to it in 2015.

Workers who spoke to our correspondent have bitterly complained about either irregular payment of their salaries on delay in paying them.
“As I speak with you, I can tell you without any iota of contradiction that the last time we got paid in this commission was in September. Even at that, we have gotten only 74% of our entitlement. Believe you me that 74% I am talking about here was paid in three installments.
“When these things started happening, we engaged the Chief Commission to see how we, the staff and union members in the commission could put heads together and arrive at a reasonable conclusion but he did not show any keen interest”, one of the sources emphasised.