Payroll cleaning saves govt sh21b

By Josephine Maseruka

THE public service ministry last year saved sh21b through cleaning the payroll, the minister has said. The exercise involved removing non-existent employees from the payroll.

Henry Kajura yesterday refuted media reports, which alleged that sh21b was swindled in a ghost pension scam.

Kajura told a press conference at his office in Wandegeya that the salary payroll cleaning exercise aimed at identifying genuine staff and was not connected to pension.

He said the ministry passed the report on the exercise to the parliamentary public accounts committee.

“The ministry also asked various officers to clarify on unaccounted for funds.”
Kajura said most complaints on pension came from people not qualified for the scheme.

“We have conditions that must be fulfilled for one to get pension. That person must have worked for a minimum of 10 years and is 45 years and above.”

He added that the pension scheme had improved tremendously from past years “and the public, especially those in Arua do appreciate our services.”
Kajura said the ministry had information that the British government had been paying money to ex-service men of the first and second world wars.

“We know there has been some money coming but a few people have been grabbing it. In Hoima, for example, the ex-service men were given a maize mill to generate income locally. We are going to investigate who has been taking this money.”

He said the world war veterans were not entitled to pension although some people were lobbying for them.

“They served under the British government, which must cater for them.”
The minister, however, clarified that all former soldiers who served the nation since independence were entitled to pension.

The Government this year provided sh186b for pension arrears of which sh138b has been paid.

Kajura broke down the payments as: 22,000 pensioners paid under the single spine arrears scheme, 1,500 for commuted pension gratuity and 400 retired UPDF officers received gratuities.
Others are 2,000 pensioners paid for the revalidation (1988) arrears and 7,000 UPDF widows and orphans. Kajura said outstanding pension arrears were about sh100b.

Limited finances, he said, meant not all 44,000 pensioners could be paid at once.
Kajura said priority was given to the sick. “If they forward an authentic case of an ailing patient, who requires treatment abroad, we pay the pension.”

Stephen Kiwanuka-Kunsa, the commissioner for compensation, said sh7b is spent monthly on pension.

He added that sh74b had been paid to former workers of the East African Community and sh10b to former employees of the East African Airways.

“Anyone in that category, who claims that he has never been cleared, could be under the residual cases and they must come to us.”