Suspected ghost pensioners raise concern
Oct 26, 2015
Over 11,000 pensioners and their beneficiaries are at risk of no getting their pensions for not have proper bank documents or not having completed their verification process.
By John Odyek
Over 11,000 pensioners and their beneficiaries are at risk of no getting their pensions for not have proper bank documents or not having completed their verification process.
Government officials also fear that many of the pensioners who are often called for verification and do not turn up could be ghosts that cause the country to lose billions of shillings.
The acting commissioner budget policy and evaluation ministry of finance Robert Okudi said there has been an on- going verification exercise for pensioners but they had not received a response from some these pensioners.
Okudi said a pensioner or their beneficiary is supposed to get pensions for the first 15 years whether the pensioner is alive or dead. He said after 15 years, the pension stops if the pensioner has died but if they are verified to be alive the pension pay continues.
A press statement from the permanent secretary, ministry of public service informed the pensioners to report to their last duty stations (ministry or local government of retirement) for verification between 21st to 28th October, 2015.
"Those verified will be paid their accrued pension from July 2015 to date. The listed pensioners will be required to present valid identity cards and copies of previous documents of employment. Pensioners are not required to submit tax identification numbers (tin) numbers," read the statement.
"Accounting officers of ministries and local governments are obliged to expedite the verification of the pensioners who retired at their respective votes and submit the verified list, in both hard and soft copies to the permanent secretary ministry of public service not later than 30th October 2015"
Okudi said no further pension payments would be made from July 2015 without the verification process being complete for each pensioner.
Victor Bua, assistant commissioner, pensions department, ministry of public service said the government adopted the Integrated Personnel and Payroll System which manages both salaries and pensions payments.
Bua said a process has been ongoing to migrate all civil servants and those who have retired to this new system. He said with the new system once an employee retires from the salary system he or she automatically transits to the pension system.
"Public service has been maintaining records of pensioners showing place of residence. With the new system, a pensioner has to show where they retired from and that is where they will receive their pensions under the decentralized records," Bua said.
He said the ministry of public service had been maintaining records for all local government pensioners, the UPDF and the traditional teaching service commission. He said the last pay for these groups were done in June 2015 and have been stopped and replaced with the new system.
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