The Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development has successfully completed the physical Verification Exercise of Government Pensioners.
The verification exercise was carried out by the Ministry in collaboration with other bodies such as the National Audit Office, Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) , National Registration Bureau (NRB), Malawi Defence Force (MDF), Malawi Police Services (MPS) and the Dept of Human Resources Management and Development( DHRMD).
The Ministry intends to delete from payroll all pensioners who failed to avail themselves for the exercise with effect from June, 2020.
This is contained in a statement signed by the Secretary to the Treasury, Cliff Chiunda dated 6th May, 2020 with the subject, ” Notice to delete pensioners who failed to participate in physical verification exercise.”
In a statement, the Ministry says the purpose of the exercise was to validate the existence of pensioners and update the database with correct contact details, account numbers, and other information such as national Identity card details.
A statement says the exercise was conducted using biometric identification of fingerprints and national ID card issued by the NRB saying pensioner’s information was thoroughly examined against the NRB database, Human Resources Management Information System( HRMIS) database and the pension payroll.
“The verifying officers would only sign on the registration form upon thorough scrutiny, forms not signed were considered null and void. Those pensioners without national ID card but receiving montly pension through commercial banks, were not permitted to participate in this exercise,” reads a statement in part.
The Ministry says Government Pension Payroll contains 37,984 pensioners and out of these 33,960 pensioners were physically verified saying the remaining 4,024 pensioners failed to avail themselves for the exercise and will be deleted from the payroll effective June, 2020.
The minyistry says it is well aware that some pensioners are living outside Malawi and failed to participate in this exercise as they could not meet the physical verification requirements, there’s the online registration strictly for pensioners in diaspora which will commence from 14th May – 30th June, 2020.
The Ministry is also requesting pensioners who will be deleted but are still existing to avail themselves for verification at the Accountant Genetal’s Dept in Lilongwec from 15th June – 31st July, 2020, these pensioners will be required to produce NRB identity card, copy of last payslip if available, letter of retirement if available, G.P. 10 voucher, if available, employment number, pension number and bank details for them to be re introdufed on the payroll.
