Bogus old folk siphon off pension funds

Of the Rs 7 billion the Government spends as pensions, Rs. 1 billion is illegally acquired by various parties, including pensioners and fake pensioners, Pensions Director General, K.A Thilakaratne said. He said many frauds were stopped with the introduction of the life certificate the pensioners were expected to forward once a year, starting from this year onwards.

Incidents where pensioners in the Widows and Orphans Pension category obtained pensions illegally, have been traced easily with the introduction of the life certificate every pensioner should produce. An officer in a post office in Mirigama and a pensioner had prepared false documents and had drawn 11 pensions, the total of which exceeds Rs. 8,400,000.

An incident was reported from Kurunegala where a widow whose husband had died in 1989 had been receiving his salary – to which she is entitled until her late husband reaches 55 – for five more years due to an error. She had not informed the authorities knowing that she should do so but, instead, had prepared a file of false documents and had applied for a pension of her dead husband again in 2006. Only when the forwarding of the life certificate became compulsory was it found she was unable to provide two certificates confirming her entitlements to the two pensions.

A lady in Puttalam who was receiving one pension found she was entitled to two pensions but so far she had not received one as an officer at the Puttalam post office had been drawing one of her pensions regularly after she signed the pension voucher. A certain district Judge too had been obtaining her husband’s pension to which her unmarried children were entitled, for years after they had married. A man had been receiving his father’s pension, to which he was entitled until he was 26, all his life. The error was detected only after his death.

Under the previous system, if the pension voucher — which was compulsory to draw the pension — went missing, the pensioner had to get a duplicate voucher from the Divisional Secretariat. If the pensioner was unable to get the pension himself, a Justice of Peace should certify a second receiver of the pension.

Mr. Thilakaratne said the Pensions Department saw the need for an easy and efficient methodology for pensioners to drawn their pensions while minimizing frauds. “On the other hand, to send pension vouchers to pensioners, the Government spent Rs. 57 million as postal and administration costs. Under the old system the Divisional Secretariats had to write around 7000 cheques to various banks, islandwide while according to the new system, we have to send one cheque per bank,” he said.

Mr. Thilakaratne said the majority of the pensioners go to banks, as out of the 440,000 pensioners, only around 100,000 draw their pensions from post offices.“So, according to the new system, the pension goes to the account in a bank chosen by the pensioner and he can draw the pension from his account.

The advantage here is that he could save some money from the pension. We created bank accounts for 30,000 pensioners who did not have bank accounts,” he said. Every month, pension money is transferred to pensioners’ bank accounts and the details would be included in the Department website through which one could check his pension using his pension number as the password.

“However, when we transfer money to a bank account, we want to ensure whether the pensioner is alive. So, every year, the pensioners are expected to send a life certificate to the Divisional Secretariat through the Grama Niladhari,” he said adding that the pensioners living overseas send life certificates every month.

This was the system the Divisional Secretariats were expected to adopt — check whether the pensioners were alive, not often, but once in two years.“What we did was we stabilised the system. We see the disadvantages as well, especially the frauds that could take place by creating joint accounts,” he said.

However, there were no moves yet to request pensioners not to have joint accounts as very old pensioners find it easy to draw their pensions by opening a joint account with a younger member of the family.

“We have decentralised the powers of the Grama Niladhari as well. If a pensioner dies in his area, the Grama Niladhari is expected to inform the relevant Divisional Secretary to stop the pension,” he said adding that many pensioners blame the new system, forgetting how much they suffered under the old scheme.

The State and Provincial Administrative Pensioners Association president T.H.H. Perera said that when considering the fraud that takes place concerning pensions, a proper system to detect them is essential even though many pensioners consider it an additional burden to obtain the life certificate.

The association of retired teachers with low salaries secretary N.M. Perera said more than young pensioners, old pensioners are reluctant to adjust to the new system, probably due to them being used to a system for a long period of time.