Parliamentary body urges tighter measures to protect integrity of $2B Old Age Pension scheme

Mar 04, 2014 News

Government’s $2B Old Age Pension (OAP) Scheme may be heading for an overhaul with disclosures yesterday of an intention to do away with the current coupon system.
Instead, senior citizens will have the possibilities of just presenting identification at the paying post office.
However, Government wants more time to study the proposal that was announced by the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security. The issue was one of several discussed yesterday after officials of the Ministry appeared before Parliament’s Public Account Committee (PAC) during an examination of the 2011 Auditor General Report.
With over 42,000 pensioners benefitting from the programme, PAC’s members, comprising both Government and Opposition Members of Parliament, was worried about the OAP.

Officials of the Ministry of Labour during the examination of the 2011 Auditor General Report.

In the 2011 report, state auditors noted that the OAP database was still not updated on a regular basis for new applicants and pensioners who had died. Although the pension books were sequentially numbered, the numbers were also not being entered into the database as a means of tracking the allocations of books and accompanying coupons to pensioners.
Contracts issued for the printing of the coupons were found to be deficient with key clauses of duration, remedies for breach of contract, ownership of the printing software and the disposal of spoilt coupons not addressed.
Concerns were also expressed by the Audit Office over the reconciliation of payments made by the post offices which have arrangements to pay the coupons on presentation.
PPP Parliamentarian Bibi Shadick was especially concerned over what happens when a pensioner is unable to collect his/her voucher, recommending that the Ministry examine the possibilities of pensioners even being visited.
Once the vouchers are not uplifted, the Ministry’s database would flag the pensioner, Ministry officials said.
Under the law, once a pensioner is out of the country for more than three months, they forfeit the right to collect. However, Shadick noted that there may be cases where persons may visit overseas for medical treatment, so there may be need for a review.
Meanwhile, MP Gail Teixeira, also on the Government side on the PAC, spoke of the possibility of death certificates of pensioners being sent electronically eventually.
Currently, the Ministry would await the certificates from family members before deleting the pensioner from the system. With Government also using the Ministry’s database to pay subsidies for electricity and water, it was pointed out that the state could unwittingly be paying to benefitting families.
There were searching questions for the Ministry yesterday also, over the integrity of the actual coupon books that are being printed by a contractor. As part of the security measures, the Ministry has been placing a special sticker on the books.
Auditor General Deodat Sharma admitted yesterday that during his checks of the 2011 accounts, the Ministry insisted that there were no spoilt voucher books during printing, a surprising fact.
The PAC now wants the Ministry to tighten up on its security with the pension coupons and the way this is being handled. Pensioners are given up to three months to encash the vouchers.
Meanwhile, the Ministry has to also provide answers for a $75M claim that it has with the Health Ministry’s Health Sector Development Unit. The monies were to assist patients with HIV/AIDS who had applied for public assistance. The Health Ministry had been refunded just over $8M
The matter has been “red-flagged” by the PAC with the Ministry mandated to pull out all stops and bring closure to the matter.