…Say contributions being used by politicians
Civil Servants have demanded the Lazarus Chakwera administration to abolish the contributory pension policy which the government imposed on them from the year 2017.
The civil servants want the government to reimburse the money deducted from their salaries over the past months.
In a letter on Monday addressed to Chakwera, the grouping said there is scanty information regarding the new policy because it only targets those below age of 35 which is selective.
“The policy lacks transparency and accountability on the part of government, your Excellency, we feel the policy is unfair and illegal to some extent, we wonder why and how the government entered into agreement with a third party in name of Old Mutual.
“As we speak, there is growing feeling that the contributions are being used by politicians. It is not a secret your Excellency that the government started implementing the policy without signing any documents with us beneficiaries,” the civil servants said in a letter.
The civil servants also expressed concern that government subjected them to another policy yet they are serving on mandatory policy as per our first appointment.
“We, therefore endeavor to know how the government will marry the two policies. From the few privileged employees who were given websites and passwords by Old Mutual to be checking their balance, it only shows money accumulated on the contributory policy disregarding all the years one had served.
“This raises a lot of questions and doubt as to how one will access the money for served on mandatory policy. Because of lack of transparency, we feel duped by the government as we do not know how the two policies will be married,” the civil servants said.
According to the civil servants, government also started implementing the policy without the employees signing any documents and only introduced documents after a year of serving on the new policy.
“This has created problems when the bereaved want to access the money. As you are aware, Old Mutual is a profit making organization. So when one wants to access his or her dues, they are told to furnish details and asked to go through rigorous paper work. Sir, it is worrisome that some of the bereaved fail to access the money to date,” reads part of the letter.
They government workers also said that president Lazarus Chakwera talked about rebuilding and clearing the rubble of laziness as such they consider the pension scheme as a rubble that has potential to pull the country backwards despite their efforts to build new Malawi.
The civil servants went on to say that as the government embarks on public sector reforms, the pension scheme should be taken as priority because it is not only discriminatory but its implementation has a lot of inconsistent on the part of government and owners
They therefore asked Chakwera to intervene and order responsible officers to put them back on mandatory policy and reimburse the money deducted in the name of new policy.
