Abia Orders Retiring Workers To Begin Three-Month Leave

The Abia State Government has directed permanent secretaries, heads of parastatals and heads of non-ministerial departments to identify civil servants due for retirement and ensure they begin the mandatory three-month pre-retirement leave.

Naija News reports that the order was contained in an internal memorandum signed by the state Head of Service, Benson Ojeikere.

Under the directive, all affected government officials are expected to compile the names of workers who qualify for retirement and ensure they comply with the pre-retirement leave policy.

The policy covers civil servants who have attained the statutory retirement age of 60 years or completed 35 years in service.

It also applies to directors affected by the eight-year tenure limit for the position.

The government referred to existing Public Service Rules and previous circulars issued on June 6, 2017, and July 18, 2017, as the basis for implementing the directive.

The memorandum instructed heads of ministries, departments and agencies to identify all workers due for retirement, including those affected by the tenure policy, and direct them to begin their leave according to the approved schedule.

They were also asked to speed up the processing of retirement and pension documents within the stipulated period to ensure that affected workers do not experience unnecessary delays when they leave the service.

The Head of Service further directed that any challenges affecting the implementation of the policy should be reported immediately to his office for necessary action.

Speaking on the directive, Ojeikere confirmed that the government had issued the memorandum but disclosed that some workers expected to retire were unwilling to begin the process.

He explained that the three-month pre-retirement leave was introduced to give affected civil servants enough time to prepare their retirement documents while they were still receiving their salaries.

According to him, the state government is working towards ensuring that workers who retire can begin receiving their pensions as soon as possible, instead of waiting for several months after their salaries have stopped.

He noted that pension payments had sometimes taken two, three or even four months to begin after a worker retired, a situation he said could affect the reputation of the state public service.

Ojeikere said the government wanted to address the problem by ensuring that retirement and pension processing began before workers officially left their positions.

He added that the affected workers would continue to receive their salaries during the three-month pre-retirement period while the necessary pension arrangements were being made.