The Controller and Accountant General’s Department has initiated steps to recover money paid to some deceased pensioners of the military.

Checks at the department revealed that the process of recovery from the widows was in progress, as it had set up the amount involved against the monthly benefit payable to the widows of the deceased pensioners.

A source at the CAGD told the Daily Graphic that information about the demise of the deceased military persons was not communicated to the department promptly for deletion to be effected.

It said the widows of dead military pensioners are entitled to a widow’s pension following the deletion of the names of the deceased military person.

CAP 30

The source said the business process for pension payroll administration required CAP 30 institutions to provide inputs to CAGD for the payment of benefits to pensioners.

“When a pensioner dies, the institutions or families of the deceased equally have the responsibility of informing CAGD.

Unfortunately, information about the death of the 59 pensioners was delayed,” the source told the Daily Graphic but indicated, however, that at the time of the audit, the pension’s payment to the deceased pensioners had been stopped.

It said that the completion of the digitalisation of the birth and death registry and its integration with the pension payroll system would help to delete pensioners as soon as death certificates were issued.

Further checks by the Daily Graphic at the CAGD revealed that the beneficiary widows were set up on the data credentials of the pensioners and that at the time of the audit, the pensioners’ pensions had been stopped because the department had received notice of their demise.

Observations

Sources at the CAGD said the observations that were made by the audit service had the list of widows of the deceased pensioners and that was how the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) pensions worked.

The source explained that the widows of the pensioners were entitled to 50 per cent of the amount the pensioners earned while alive.

It said to pave the way for the CAGD to recover the amount of the unearned pensions paid since the demise of the individual pensioners, the widows were first set up on the system.

That, the source explained, allowed the authority to calculate how much had been paid and then deduct.

It said some had even completed servicing those undue or unearned payments and the rest was ongoing.

The source, however, explained that widows were only paid when the pensioner’s pension had been stopped and that the time for processing the widow’s pension was based on the swiftness with which the department received information on the demise of the pensioner.

That notwithstanding, it said, the CAGD had, as of the beginning of July, started a process of re-verifying all pensioners across the country through the collection of their Ghana card details to be integrated into the pension payroll database.

It said by the close of this month, the re-verification exercise would be completed for the interfacing and integration to begin.

That, according to the source, would give identity and credibility to the pensioners paid by the CAGD.

 Background

The 2022 Auditor-General’s report has accused the Controller and Accountant General and his director of the pensions unit of continued payment of pension of some 59 deceased pensioners in the audit of public accounts of ministries, departments and agencies.

According to the Auditor General, the deceased, who died between 2013 and 2019, were still benefiting from unearned pensions totalling GH¢393,315.06 so far.

Touching on what the department was doing to ensure a rigorous system, the source explained that the department had put in place the completion of a life certificate which was carried out annually to give the conviction that the pensioner is still alive.

Periodically, it said, the CAGD engaged pensioners’ associations to ensure the speedy processing of pension benefits, as well as the stoppage of unearned pensions.

It said the CAGD had also set up a processing centre with the pension’s directorate of the GAF, with the mandate of initiating the process of a pension benefit or entitlement and the stoppage of pensions.

It added that should a pensioner pass on before they inform CAGD, the centre would have effected the deletion or the stoppage of the payment of the pension.

The source, therefore, called on relatives of deceased pensioners to ensure that the pensions association, the GAF pension’s directorate and the CAGD are promptly informed when such occurrences happen.

It added that the widows are only paid when the pensioners’ pension has been stopped, adding that “the time for processing the widow’s pension is based on the swiftness with which we receive information of the demise of the pensioner.”

SOURCE: GraphicOnline