How long does it take for retired civil servants to get their pension?

By Lilian Keene-Mugerwa: Posted  Wednesday, February 6  2013 at  02:00

In Summary

These pensioners have been reduced to mere beggars by officials who attend to them. Why would they be subjected to a long, cumbersome and unnecessary process in claiming what rightly belongs to them?

A fortnight ago, the Daily Monitor reported the passing of a former employee of the East African Community who struggled for more than two decades to secure his pension at the Ministry of Public Service. He was sick, ageing and penniless!

Faustino Alego served the East African Community for close to a decade. The Agama village resident of Kamuda Sub-county in Soroti District died before getting his benefits, leaving behind a widow, 13 children and grandchildren.

Prior to his death, Alego had made several trips to Kampala at the Ministry of Public Service with the hope that he would secure his pay, and probably meet his medical bills since his health was deteriorating.

Unfortunately, this was not to be. He sought his entitlement for his life’s work but died without getting it.

What is puzzling is that the pensions office where Alego was supposed to receive his pay rendered him a ghost pensioner. His picture appeared in the media, indicating that he had received his pension through Cairo

International Bank in Kampala. This was after a police investigation of the rot in the pension sector.

Investigations found that whereas the photo was genuine, the accompanying name was false. Alego’s picture had been published in the media in November last year under the names of Jamal Matovu.

This story is just one out of a million other desperate and frustrated pensioners out there suffering in rural areas as bureaucracy and corruption takes its toll in the Public Service ministry. This is frustrating given that these senior citizens are pursuing what they worked for. Many of them end up like Alego- dying because they cannot meet their hedge medical bills.

Such are the heroes of our country, the pillars of our nation who unreservedly used their passion and talent to better their society. I bet during their active days, these were men and women that the country held in high esteem; they laid a brick on which many of us have built on. We hold this country with a lot of pride because of these men.

Unfortunately, many of us, especially the Ministry of Public Service, seem to have forgotten the contribution of these gallant men and women. These pensioners have been reduced to mere beggars by officials who attend to them. Why would they be subjected to a long, cumbersome and unnecessary process in claiming what rightly belongs to them?

This is contrary to objective 14 of the National Objectives and Directive Principles of the State Policy under the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, 1995, which states that all Ugandans are entitled to enjoyment of the rights and opportunities and access to education, health services, clean and safe water, work, decent shelter, food security and pension and retirement benefits.

The same Constitution under Article 254 clearly lays down that a public officer shall, on retirement, receive such pension as is commensurate with his or her rank, salary and length of service. The payment of pension shall be prompt and regular and easily accessible to pensioners.

Getting pension has become so complicated. Even surviving next of kin find it hard to follow up through litigation. The Ministry of Public Service is charged with handling salaries for civil servants and it’s the same that takes care of pension. Why doesn’t the process of paying pensioners take a shorter time like that of paying salaries to civil servants? What new information does the ministry want that it did not have from pensioners while still employees in the public service.

Why can’t the government take the services nearer where the pensioners live? This would ease the burden of having them travel to Kampala to secure what may not be readily available.

What has happened to the proposed reforms of the pension sector that has been ongoing for over a decade? Will the structural bottlenecks that hinder pensioners from accessing their money on time ever be addressed?

Keene-Mugerwa is the Executive Director, Platform for Labour Action.
director@pla-uganda.org