17,000 phantom pensioners paid out in 2010 - AFC

17,000 phantom pensioners paid out in 2010 – AFC

Aug 06, 2011 News

Greater transparency in accounting for old age pension is needed since 17,000 so-called phantom pensioners were paid out in 2010. This was expressed by AFC Executive member Sasenarine Singh at the party’s weekly press conference at Fourth Street, Campbellville headquarters, Wednesday.
“Ministerial rant and rave in the National Assembly is not the answer. Clear documentary evidence to back up their Pension register of some 44,000 pensioners is the answer.” He said. “Even if we are to give the Minister the benefit of the doubt and grow the over-65 population more than the national average, still there is no observed evidence to demonstrate that Guyana has 44,000 pensioners. A statistical sampling done by a UN Official is not good enough.”
He said that billions of dollars are being leaked into private pockets and the minimum a responsible Government can do is to investigate the claim and present the evidence to support the conclusion and take corrective actions or present evidence to the contrary.
“…We decided to conduct a much more detailed study with what we have. It was found that Guyana’s population grew by 1.1% over 2010. We used an over 65-year-old growth rate of five per cent almost five times faster than the national average.
“We know this is too high but we wanted to give the Minister the benefit of the doubt. Yet with this inflated number, our study can only muster some 34,376 persons over 65 years persons in the population,” Singh said.
Noting that Minister Manickchand’s figure of 44,000 pensioners in Guyana remains suspicious, Sasenarine Singh said there is enough reason to believe that between some $900 million and $1.3 billion still remains unaccounted for with respect to the National Old Age Pension Scheme.
“Donald Ramotar, the PPP Presidential Candidate said there is some amount of corruption in Guyana but a lot of it is exaggerated. We in the AFC want to ask Mr. Ramotar -. Is this an exaggeration? Why as Presidential Candidate of the PPP has Donald Ramotar not used his authority to call for a full investigation into the National Old Age Pension Scheme? What is there to hide?” he said.
“It is just unholy and unjust and downright disgusting to pay pensioners 7,500 a month while top officials of the Government spend some $800 million a year traveling the globe and you all know who spend most of that money on luxury jaunts and bacchanal!”

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17,000 phantom pensioners paid out in 2010 – AFC

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