Finance Ministry before PAC

“It’s totally unacceptable that someone would retire at 60 and not get their pension and gratuity until (say) 63. My objective,” Dhanpaul told the PAC, “is that you retire today and you get your pension tomorrow. (This) is something I’ve been discussing with the Treasury Division.

“There’s no reason why at least 50 percent of the gratuity of every pensioner cannot be paid the next day after retirement, because the Treasury is fully aware of what the 100 percent should look like...I think if we can solve that, it would be a significant breakthrough as far as the provision of pension when necessary for the retired public servant.” Asked by Independent Senator Jennifer Raffoul, to provide some time frames for measures to improve the pension system, Dhanpaul said the ministry is working on “fixing the IT (information technology)” involved in pension data collection.

He gave the example of a 40-year-old public servant being able to go online and find out how much pension they would get upon retirement.

“The perfect situation is that you are 40-yearsold and you can go online and know, on your date of retirement, what your pension would look like. That’s the perfect system. I would like to get there within a time frame of maybe two years.

“Right now, we’re working on an IT system within the Pension Division of the Treasury to track files. Unfortunately, the Treasury does not operate independently.

We have to depend on the other ministries and when there are delays in other ministries, you have delays at the Treasury Division.” Dhanpaul then asked the Deputy Comptroller of Accounts in the Treasury Division, Karen Seebaran-Timothy, to elaborate on what he had just said. “As PS indicated, we do rely on other ministries and departments to submit reliable and accurate information (but) often times, it is not so. What we have done in the interim, though, is work assiduously and closely with each ministry and department by establishing liaison officers so that we have communication on a direct basis” which has reduced the need for internal memos.

Seebaran-Timothy said the Treasury Division has also “re-engineered” its internal processes to make them “a little more efficient” as well as reduced some time frames internally.

“We’ve also re-assigned staff from other sections and branches, so that we have more assistance in the pensions management branch. We’re also taking a closer look at full automation,” Seebaran- Timothy told the PAC.