PenCom Clarifies DG’s Absence at Budget Hearing

James Emejo in Abuja

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has explained that the failure of its Director-General, Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar, to honour a recent invitation by the House of Representatives Committee on Finance was not deliberate.

The Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Saidu Abdullahi, had frowned at the absence of Dahir-Umar, refusing to give audience to senior officials of the commission until the DG appeared in person to defend its 2021/2022 budget and present the 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework/Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP).

However, the management, in a statement issued over the weekend, said contrary to the belief that the DG had decided to shun the committee’s invitation to appear before it, she was actually “out of town attending an official engagement.”

However, the commission’s Commissioner of Finance, the Director and Head of Accounts and the Deputy Director and Head of Financial Planning represented her at the hearing, which is the usual practice whenever the DG is unavailable.

According to PenCom, “The director-general takes invitations from the National Assembly seriously and ensures that she attends personally except when the exigencies of her office make it impossible, in which case the relevant Commissioner and Management staff of the Commission represent her.”

PenCom, nonetheless, noted with satisfaction the observation by the House Committee on the quality and comprehensiveness of the reports submitted to it by the commission.