The Secretary to Treasury, Ramathan Ggoobi (picrured) has issued a three-month ultimatum as the time within which all Accounting Officers in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are supposed to process files for pensioners and retirees, so as to end the misery and anguish that public servants have been accustomed to when attempting to access their pension and gratuity.
Ggoobi who is also the Permanent Secretary to Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development issued the warning through the Budget Execution Circular for FY2023/2024 that was intended to communicate the annual cash flow plan and highlight the policy, operation and administrative guidelines for the execution of the 2023/2024 national budget.
The Secretary to Treasury noted that following the full decentralization of pension and gratuity processing the Vote level, all Accounting Officers are responsible for the management of their pension payrolls, however, the Ministry of Finance had received reports of delays in processing pension files due to unmatched records, information on retirees’ files, yet these issues still persist yet they formed the basis for decentralization of payroll management given that these accounting offers have access rights to both physical staff files and the IPPS system.
He said, “You are advised to superintend over offices in the approval process to ensure that no files take more than one week at the given verification or approval stage and to initiate disciplinary proceedings on the responsible officers where such unnecessary delays are identified to ensure that the entire process is complete in less than 3months from time of the retirees’ submission of their requests.”
Ggoobi also raised concern on delays in accessing the pension payroll by pensioners where some drop off the pension payroll without clear reasons before they are 75years old, because they are required to submit annual life certificates, yet they are not informed in time to do so.
“This has caused untold anguish and misery to some of our senior citizens. Accounting officers should therefore; maintain a stable pensions payroll and ensure timely processing and payment of monthly pension by the 28th day of the month and promptly notify pensioners who are due to submit life certificates for verification, through the most efficient media available,” wrote Ggoobi.
The development comes at the time the December 2022 Auditor General report reported cases of overpayment of pension in 75 Local Government, where 62 pensioners were overpaid to a tune of Shs282,041,444, while 945 pensioners were underpaid to a tune of Shs14.997Bn.
