ENUGU - Enugu State House of Assembly has directed its committee on Civil Service and Judiciary to conduct public hearing on the state’s Pensions Reform Bill.

The Speaker, Mr. Eugene Odo, said the inputs of people would enrich the contents of the bill when passed into law.

Odo gave the committee two weeks to submit its report to the House.

Earlier, in his contribution, Mr. Paul Anikwe, representing Ezeagu, said passage of the bill would stop the hurdles that civil servants were passing through before getting their pensions. He said the reform bill would guarantee automatic pension benefits on retirement.

Anikwe, however, said the pension fund should be lodged in banks and not corporate funds bodies to avoid mismanagement.

Also contributing, Mr. Marcel Njeze, representing Udi North, said it was an injustice to deduct seven per cent from civil servants’ salary as contributory pension.

He said since the government would not pay the civil servants their gratuity on retirement, the state should make the entire contribution to the pension’s fund.

Njeze said what this meant was that civil servants were using their salaries to pay their gratuity on retirement while the government they served for years had not contributed anything.