Pensioners to be paid this week

Mr Keith Muhakanizi (R), the Secretary to the Treasury and other officials from the Ministry of Finance apear before the Parliament Public Accounts Committee to answer questions about the mismanagement of the pensions money recently. PHOTO BY FAISWAL KASIRYE. 

By ANTHONY WESAKA & NELSON WESONGA
Posted 


Monday, December 14  

2015 at 

02:00

In Summary

Not paid. Pensioners have not received their money for the months of July and August.

All pensioners countrywide will be paid their two-month arrears before the end of this week, Mr Keith Muhakanizi, the Secretary to the Treasury, has said.
Mr Muhakanizi also warned all accounting officers not to take long to pay the pensioners and that whoever defies this directive will face disciplinary action.
Retired civil servants have not received their monthly pension for the months of July and August.

“We are very sorry that this happened but the accounting officers should, by the end of this week, have paid all the pensioners their two-months arrears,” Mr Muhakanizi said in a telephone interview with this newspaper at the weekend.

He explained why the ministry had taken long without clearing the pensioners, saying the pension payment process underwent a process to have it decentralised. He said they were cleaning the payroll of any ghosts.

“I believe the verification process of weeding out ghost pensioners from the payroll is over so the genuine pensioners can now be paid,” he said.

A retired primary school teacher in Mbale District, who preferred to remain anonymous so as to freely express her grievances, told Daily Monitor of how her casual workers are giving her sleepless nights for not paying them for the last two months as a result of her pension not coming through.

Ms Irene Mary Twanza, another pensioner from Jinja, lamented of how her life had become very difficult as she was depending entirely on her small pension for survival.

Pension cash woes
This development comes at a time when three former top Public Service ministry officials, including Jimmy Lwamafa, Christopher Obey and Stephen Kunsa Kiwanuka, are on remand at Luzira prison for allegedly misusing pension money.