Full automation part of pension system overhaul

Government plans numerous measures to stop pension pilferage in the country

ISLAMABAD:

After reports of 600,000 ghost pensioners, the federal government has decided to take numerous measures, including full automation of the pension payment system, to stop pilferages in future.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) Rana Asad Amin decided to take new initiatives for facilitation of pensioners in the country, according to an official handout.

It was decided that Direct Credit System (DCS) for new pensioners would be mandatory in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Giglit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Balochistan. The federal government and Punjab are already in the process of implementing DCS.

Out of 474,025 pensioners in Punjab, as many as 172,674 pensioners were getting pensions through DCS. The provincial government gave Rs9.4 billion pensions last month including Rs4.9 billion disbursed through DCS.

The finance ministry said that all the existing pensioners would be converted to the Direct Credit System (DCS) and receive monthly pension directly through their bank accounts just the way they received their salaries.

In August this year, National Bank of Pakistan had claimed that during the process of opening bank accounts of the pensioners, it had identified 600,000 ghost pensioners. Mudassir Khan, Senior Executive Vice President of the NBP had made the claim while giving a briefing to Senate Standing Committee on Finance.

There are 2.572 million pensioners in the country including 1.3 million military pensioners. The federal government paid Rs219 billion in civilian and military pensions in the last fiscal year including Rs167 billion to military pensioners.

After the NBP claim, the finance minister had asked the office of the AGP to launch an investigation besides recommending measures to stop pilferages in future.

In Punjab, the AGP had picked ten NBP branches for investigating the claim. The officials said two NBP branches refused to provide record while there were no serious nature discrepancies in other eight branches.



The government also decided all the officers in Basic Pay Scale-17 and above at the federal government level would receive pensions only through the DCS system from March next year.

It was decided that the pension application form would be simplified in consultation with the Ministry of Finance and number of pages would be reduced from the current sixteen to two. Further it was decided that a Full System Integration (PMIS) would be developed between Accountant General of Pakistan Revenue and offices of the AGP throughout the country to facilitate payment of pension and have proper data about pensioners.

The finance minister on this occasion observed that ministries and departments of the federal government needed to have a designated welfare officer solely to look after the affairs of the pensioners and facilitate them in every possible manner. The minister gave direction that all banks in the country should establish counters for pensioners’ facilitation and initiate the process to covert the pensioners to DCS system.

It was also decided that the AGP Office would henceforth send quarterly reports to principal accounting officers and heads of departments conveying names of officials to be retired from service. This would help them manage the pension matters in an effective and amicable manner.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2015.