The Ministry of Public Administration has announced a new system intended to ensure the timely delivery of pensions to public officers.

In a news release yesterday, Public Administration and Communications Minister Maxie Cuffie said Cabinet has approved and confirmed a note that deals with a backlog of pensions in the public service and the Government is putting measures in place to prevent a recurrence of the problem.

Cuffie also announced the new system in Parliament during debate on the Fire Service (Amendment) Bill, 2017 last week.
Cuffie said the matter appeared a simple one, but was “causing pain to many”.

He said he has received a slew of complaints from citizens around Trinidad and Tobago about undue delays and hurdles when trying to access public service pension payments.

Cuffie said part of the history of the problem included a lack of staff at departments throughout the relevant ministries.
In addition, public officers who were trained to deal with pension and leave, a specialised field, got promoted leaving behind new officers who were unfamiliar with that area of work.

Contract officers to work

“Based on PMCD (Public Management Consulting Division) recommendations, we will use predominantly contract officers in staffing the pensions departments and giving them one to three-year contracts to ensure you have a cadre of officers dedicated who will not be transferred or promoted and leaving the people’s pension in abeyance,” Cuffie said.

He said it was agreed that there will be training, both in-house and by the Treasury Division, in the preparation and maintenance of the pension and leave records.

This training will be aimed at reducing the frequency of errors being made, which sometimes delay pension payments.

Full Content: Dayli Express

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