House tasks minister on pension payments
The Minister for Public Service has been given 45 days within which to present an action report on prayers embedded in a petition to Parliament, by the Ankole Pensioners' Association.
The directive was given by Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa, during a plenary sitting on Wednesday, 13 July 2022.
Presented by Hon. Joram Tibasiimwa (Older Persons Rep., Western), the petitioners urges government to pay all arrears that have accrued to pensioners of the association.
Its prayers among others, include a call to government to repeal the Pensions Act (Amendment of First Schedule) Instrument, 2017 which provides for periodic review of the pension payable to take into account the changes in value of money.
The petitioners want government to revert to the policy where increment or adjustment to the pension payable was based on the enhancement of the salary of serving public officers.
“The petitioners also pray that government establishes a Salary Review Commission to look into salary discrepancies of government workers,” said Tibasiimwa.
The Deputy Speaker invoked Rule 30(6) of the Rules of Procedure of Parliament, that allows the Speaker to refer a petition of an urgent matter to a minister, where he or she is of the opinion that the petition would be better handled by such a minister.
“If the Minister does not take action in 45 days, I will involve the committee. Otherwise, I need to give the Executive the chance to take action on very clear prayers,” Tayebwa said.
He added that the action report by the minister ought to speak to related concerns of pensioners across the country, when it is brought to the Floor of the House.
“This is a national matter and should not only be for Ankole, otherwise elderly people from Northern, Eastern and Central Uganda will bring similar petitions. The Minister should ensure issues across the country are handled,” said Tayebwa.
During his presentation, Tibasiimwa said the mode of adjustment of pension payable under the Pensions Act Cap. 286 was unrealistic, given that it had caused irregular payment of pension to the petitioners.
He argued that the previous government policy of enhancing pension payable as per enhancement of salaries of serving public officers, played a big role in gradual improvement of pensioners' social protection.
“The mode of determining increment to pension payable based on the inflation rate approach cannot enable the pensioners to attain a reasonable standard of living during their retirement,” Tibasiimwa noted.
He also told the House that adjustments of 3.6 per cent and 2.3 per cent on the pensioners' payrolls for the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 financial years respectively, have not been effected.
“And whereas government revalidated the pensioners' arrears for the period 1988 to 2001 and remitted pension in arrears to some pensioners, others were not paid,” he added.