Help, pensioners are dying unpaid!

Aug 16, 2009

<b>Letter of the day </b><br><br>EDITOR—one of the reasons President Museveni led a guerilla war in 1981 was to fight corruption. It is not a coincidence that “elimination of corruption and misuse of power” features in the original NRM’s Ten Poi

Letter of the day

EDITOR—one of the reasons President Museveni led a guerilla war in 1981 was to fight corruption. It is not a coincidence that “elimination of corruption and misuse of power” features in the original NRM’s Ten Point Programme.

However, while the government scores an A in the struggle to bring peace in the country, its performance in the fight against corruption is pathetic. This has cost the NRM its friends and supporters, particularly those who are directly hit by corruption. For instance, how do people whose children cannot go to school because someone in the government is quietly stealing their money think about the Government?

Take the harrowing story of the widow of Dr. Jonah Kule who died of Ebola which hit Bundibugyo in 2007. Since her husband’s death two years ago, she has neither been compensated nor paid her late husband’s benefits!

The five children she is supporting have become a burden to her. For her, even UPE is a myth. Yet this is just the tip of the iceberg. Many pensioners’ children have dropped out of school because accessing pension and gratuity is a mirage.

All pensioners from Mayuge to Arua, Kotido to Kisoro tell one story. They accuse the Pension Department of corruption. Ostensibly, the reasons for not paying off pensioners include lack of funds. At times one is told that they “cannot find” the file. Is this not an admission of incompetence?

How can an officer worth the name fail to trace a file? It is common for officers to tell pensioners to come “after two weeks”. Why should you tell a person from Arua, Gulu or Kisoro to report back after two weeks, only to repeat the same story when he turns up? Weeks turn into months and months into years and many pensioners have died without having earned their entitlements!

Pensioners are disappointed because apparently there in no order in paying pension. For example, it is not uncommon for people who submitted their documents yesterday to receive money before pensioners who handed in their files three years ago! What criteria are used?

An audit report released in the press recently, confirms beyond doubt pensioners’ long-held suspicions that the Pensions Department is corrupt. There is duplication of beneficiaries’ data and non-existent payments.

Therefore, the “you have entered corruption free zone” labels on Public Service offices are misleading, meaningless and calculated to hoodwink the unsuspecting public and should be removed. Indeed the revelations in the report explain why pensioners cannot be paid. Should anyone be surprised since officers are busy paying ‘air’ or ‘ghosts’?

This is daylight robbery. I appeal to the MPs to summon the commissioner for Pensions to explain the glaring fraudulent dealings and inconsistencies in the audit report. Did the auditor invent those anomalies?

Thorough investigations should be carried out to unearth the truth about what is happening in the pensions office. Not only are senior citizens suffering, the image of the Government is severely tarnished.

Name withheld

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