Gov't to conduct census for pensioners

The Government is to carry out a nationwide census for pensioners.

The exercise, which will take place at district headquarters, is scheduled to run between February 13 and March 30.

Addressing a press conference at Uganda Media Centre in Kampala on Monday, the public service minister, Muruli Mukasa, said the exercise is aimed at cleaning the payroll of pensioners.

According to the recent verification exercise, there are 70,085 pensioners on the government payroll. However, it was established during the verification exercise that over 2,000 pensioners who have been receiving pension and gratuity for years could not be accounted for.

The minister said that the census will establish the genuine pensioners and rid the payroll of possible ghosts.

"We will capture the biometric details of all pensioners and beneficiaries with letters of administration for proper identification. The pensioners' records will be linked to the national identification database," Muruli said.

The minister added that the verification schedules for various districts have been communicated to the Chief Administrative Officers and will be published in newspapers and aired on respective local FM radio stations across the country.

"The pensioners are not required to come to the ministry of public service as they will be validated at the district headquarters of residence. The exercise is free of charge," Muruli explained.

Details in Tuesday's New Vision