REPS OKAY AMENDED NATIONAL HEALTH BILL, WORKERS HAIL MOVE

• Defaulters risk 10-year jail term, others

• Reps okay amended National Health Bill, workers hail move

• Lawmakers plan constituency devt fund

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan Tuesday signed into law the 2014 Pension Reform Bill, effectively repealing the 2004 Pension Reform Act.

Meanwhile, after exhaustive deliberations, the House of Representatives yesterday passed the amended version of the National Health Bill (NHB) 2014 or rather the ‘People’s Version’.

In the same vein, if a legislation being considered by the House of Representatives sails through, a constituency development fund would be established in no distant time from now.

The new pension law prescribes among others, upward review of penalties and sanctions to pension defaulters and employers which fail to remit deducted monies of their employees.

The new law was passed between May and June, this year by the National Assembly and subsequently forwarded to the President for assent. The House of Representatives passed the bill on May 27, while the Senate passed it on June 3.

According to the signed document, “The Pension Reform Act 2014 also makes provisions that will enable the creation of additional permissible investment instruments to accommodate initiatives for national development, such as investment in the real sector, including infrastructure and real estate development. This is provided without compromising the paramount principle of ensuring the safety of pension fund assets.”

Highlight of the new pension law indicate that, the sanctions provided under the Pension Reform Act 2004 were no longer sufficient deterrents against infractions of the law.

“Furthermore, there are currently more sophisticated mode of diversion of pension assets, such as diversion and/or non-disclosure of interests and commissions accruable to pension fund assets, which were not addressed by the PRA 2004. Consequently, the Pension Reform Act 2014 has created new offences and provided for stiffer penalties that will serve as deterrent against mismanagement or diversion of pension funds assets under any guise”.

The law provides that, “Persons who mismanage pension fund will be liable on conviction to not less than 10 years imprisonment or fine of an amount equal to three-times the amount so misappropriated or diverted or both imprisonment and fine”.

The 2014 Act also empowers PenCom, subject to the fiat of the Attorney General of the Federation, to institute criminal proceedings against employers who persistently fail to deduct and/or remit pension contributions of their employees within the stipulated time. This was not provided for by the 2004 Act.

The Pension Reform Act 2004 only allowed PenCom to revoke the licence of erring pension operators but does not provide for other interim remedial measures that may be taken by PenCom to resolve identified challenges in licensed operators.

The Senate had earlier in the year passed a version of the NHB, which was however, rejected by other health workers under the aegis of the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) and Allied Health Professionals Association (APHA).

Members of JOHESU and AHPA which include pharmacists, nurses, medical laboratory scientists, physiotherapists, radiographers and other health workers besides medical doctors had “strongly enjoined the House of Representatives to conduct a proper public hearing to redress outstanding contentious issue in the NHB 2014 rather than adopting a concurrence of the flawed version passed by the Senate in the ultimate professional and public interest.”

President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Olumide Akintayo, told The Guardian yesterday: “We are happy that the National Assembly that is the House of Representatives has at last passed the people’s version of the NHB. We were not happy with some sections of the Bill passed earlier in the year by the Senate. We complained and asked for our input, which the House of Representatives obliged us. We are happy with the Bill as passed. It reflects the expectations of 90 per cent of the workforce in the health sector. It is a way forward towards better, more accessible, affordable and universal health care.”

JOHESU and AHPA had consistently called on the National Assembly (NASS) to amend Section 1(1) of the NHB 2014, which was still reflected as in the original draft passed by the Senate recently.

The controversial Section 1 (1) of the version passed by the Senate posits that a “National Health System will provide regulatory framework for the regulation of health services in Nigeria.”

Yesterday, a bill to that effect aimed at ensuring even development of all constituencies in the federation passed the second reading on the floor of the House of Representatives.

Sponsor of the Bill, Mr. Ben Nwankwo, who led debate on the general principles of the legislation, maintained that there was the need to dedicate a specific percentage of the budget to the development of the rural areas in the country.

Lamenting the lukewarm attitude by the authorities to rural development, he argued that the problem would be redressed with the establishment of the fund to be administered by the rural development agency established by the government.

Nwankwo who represents Orumba North, South Federal constituency of Anambra State while canvassing the support of the lawmakers, further believed that the fund would alleviate poverty in the polity since 70 per cent of Nigerians live in the rural areas.

Stressing that the main thrust of the legislation was “to legitimise the contentious constituency support project,” he maintained that the bill was intended to correct the top-bottom approach of governance whereby the welfare of those at the grass root were often neglected.

Meanwhile, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal has reiterated his resolve to ensure openness and transparency in the affairs of the lower legislative chamber.

Speaking at the inauguration of the leadership of the House of Representatives Press Corps, yesterday at the National Assembly complex, he explained that as lawmakers, they were not operating in a secret cult in the House.

Stating that members of the public could access any information, he expressed readiness to avail the public with relevant information on the affairs of the House of Representatives.

“I urged the public to appreciate our constraints. Some believe that we’re just an appendage of the Executive, but that is not the case. Without the legislature, you can’t have a democratic government,” he said.