Economy
State pensioners’ register marked for clean-up
Wednesday November 15 2023
National Treasury Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo on March 6, 2023. PHOTO | LUCY WANJIRU | NMG
The government now says it will undertake biometric registration of all State pensioners between January and March 2024 as it looks to clean up the pensions register, which is expected to gobble up Sh189 billion in the current financial year up from Sh172.6 billion in the previous financial year.
This is according to submissions made by Treasury Principal Secretary, Chris Kiptoo while appearing before the National Assembly Public Debt and Privatisation Committee on a closed-door engagement.
Read: Over 82pc of retirees back to work amid high inflation
Dr Kiptoo has further revealed that the pensions department has requested data on all registered deaths between 2003 and 2023 from the Civil Registrations Department as part of measures aimed at cleaning up the registry.
“Recognising the importance of ensuring pension payments to legitimate beneficiaries and preventing unauthorised disbursements, the National Treasury is committed to enhancing the pension payments system. To achieve this, the Pensions Department has programmed to establish a reliable reference database by conducting biometric registration of all pensioners in the third quarter of the current financial year 2023/24,” Dr Kiptoo told the MPs.
“The Pensions Department has engaged the Civil Registration Department culminating in the formal request for all registered deaths in the last 20 years for cross-matching with the pensions payment database”, he said.
The National Treasury projects that pension liabilities will cross Sh200 billion in the financial year 2025/26 when payouts are expected to stand at Sh228.6 billion. Treasury further says the Pensions Management Information System is being overhauled.
Kiptoo told legislators that the tender for an enterprise resource planning system was closed on September 26th, 2023 and bids received are currently being reviewed. The new system, once rolled out, will be integrated with the Kenya Revenue Authority, the Government Human Resource Information System, and the Integrated Population Registration System.
The State has, however, defended the continued payout of pensions to Europeans and Asians who exited Kenya’s public service when the country attained independence in 1963.
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“The payments made through the Crown Agents Bank of the United Kingdom is an agreement entered into commonly cited as the Public Officers’ Pensions (Kenya) Agreement of 1977. Most of the officers covered in the agreement are those who retired under the Kenyanisation of the civil service programme in the immediate post-independence period. A proof of life certification exercise was carried out in 2021 and mortality screening is conducted on all UK-based pensioner beneficiaries on a monthly basis”, Kiptoo told the legislators.
In the current financial year, the pension payments to the UK are set at Sh42.0 million down from Sh150.0 million in financial year 2022/23.
