Confusion and bureaucratic nightmare surrounds the payment of monthly pension to pensioners living abroad with the Government of Sri Lanka imposing new procedures with no direct or indirect intimation given to the recipients of pensions. These changes that involve substantial departure from the established method of payments have been announced by Pension Circular 16/2009 issued by the Director General of Pensions via the Pension Department website (www.pensions.gov.lk).

In an apparent attempt to justify the changes, the Circular confesses that "payment of pension in the past has proceeded (sic) without the appropriate information on them in the Department of Pensions and without proper method of payment or management." What a self-confessed indictment of the functioning of a government department that has been in the public eye for decades?

The website states the Department has trained 350 officers "for upgrading the IT (Information Technology) skills; 250 officers for "e-citizen training"; and 125 officers for "International Computer Driving License". Apparently, these were accomplished before circular 16/2009 was issued.

There is no doubt storing pension data of recipients in computers is useful for checking the genuineness, accuracy of the amount payable and also for updating the entitlement of each recipient. In fact, this monitoring should have been carried out as a routine task of the Department. Apparently, this has not been done and the blame is being ascribed to the current payment method.

It was only towards the end of last year, the Pensions Department called for the registration of all government pensioners vide "Special Notification to Retired Sri Lankan Government Servants who live abroad". Why is this being abandoned now, despite the aforementioned e-project? What makes the authorities think that a more complex set of procedures will succeed?

The condition that a new bank account must be opened in a specified branch of a stipulated bank (People’s Bank, Queen’s Street Branch) and restrictions imposed on the right of the pensioner to operate this bank account are unduly restrictive, plainly unreasonable and legally questionable. It seems to limit the right of the account holder who is resident abroad to withdraw his/her own money only when in Sri Lanka. It also seems to prohibit the right of the account holder to place a standing order via this account to meet a regular expenditure, or meet expenses in Sri Lanka by issuing cheques while being abroad. It also makes it impossible for pensioners, resident abroad to use their pension money from this account to financially help their kith and kin on a regular basis, or make arrangements with the bank to meet their financial obligations within Sri Lanka.

It is legitimate for a pensioner to have a joint account with his wife/husband or another member of the family if the spouse is dead. He or she has a duty to act in the joint interest of the family. How can the government deny this obligation?

If the proposed methods are to prevent the abuse of the pension rights by fraudsters, it is very doubtful whether there will be any financial benefit to the government. If the existing system has been properly administered with proper checking procedures, the overpayments would not have happened. The extent of this loss is not known.

Any presumed saving to the government from the implementation of the new payment procedures that require considerable paper work both in Colombo and in the relevant missions abroad cannot come from the cost effectiveness of the new scheme. Perhaps, the establishment feels the agony and shock arising from the difficult procedures will deter the frail pensioners claiming their legitimate monthly pensions. Many are in poor health under medical care because of old age problems such as angina, arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, hypertension, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and amnesia. Even all relatively healthy pensioners do not have access to computers. They also do not know how to use them.

There are many areas where the waste of public funds is huge. These do not require elaborate administrative arrangements as in the case of pension payments to expatriates vide circular 16/2009 and the saving can be achieved just by policy changes, eradication of corruption and improved performances. Why the focus is on the pensions of Sri Lankan retired officers and widows of government servants, resident abroad when there is a pressing need for significant changes in many other areas of public spending? There is a pressing need to improve the efficiency of the public service, which now lacks proper controlling mechanisms as in the good old days, when many of the present pensioners were serving the elected governments and the public honourably.

It is baffling why proper checks under the existing payment scheme cannot be made? Since the receiver of the pension on behalf of the pensioner is a recognised bank, as is likely to be the usual case, the bank should know whether the pensioner is dead or alive. The banks in Sri Lanka do not operate outside the laws of the country and rules set by the Central Bank. They should check whether the signature of the pensioner in the Pension Receipt Form requesting the bank to credit his/her pension to the specified account is genuine or not by comparing with the signature of the account holder. Thus, there should not be any difficulty in preventing someone else receiving the pension of a dead pensioner.

The present pension form, which the pensioners send monthly to their banks in Sri Lanka consists of three parts viz. ‘Receipt portion’, ‘Certificate portion’ and ‘Authority portion’. It contains the life certificate under the Certificate portion and there is no need to call for a separate life certificate. If there is a need to tighten the payment procedure this can be done by suitable amendment to the existing form and arrangement with the banks in Sri Lanka.

According to the Pension Department’s website, ‘a special unit has been opened in view of the payment of pensions through the banks’. The stated objective is "to expedite bank activities and make the payment properly by opening this unit. This unit has been established under the supervision of the chief accountant of the pension department. Four officers are working in this unit at present".

There is also an internal audit division to investigate activities relating to pensions in various departments. This division is also required to furnish information for audit inquires of Auditor General and investigate on nominal and anonymous complaints regarding pensions. Obviously it is in regard to audit, the procedures and the adequacy and ability of the staff need to be reviewed to have effective control over pension payments.

The Government’s website states, the objectives of displaying Pensioners Data on the internet, inter alia, are "to provide an exposure for the pension payment services, to inform pensioners of the details of their monthly pension; to enable pensioners to keep track of their pension payment process; to enable pensioners to retrieve details of previous pension payments; to obtain a summary of the pension payments made at Divisional Secretariat level, with respect to numbers and amounts; to obtain statistics regarding monthly pension payments; and to be able to update the data-base from the respective Divisional Secretariat itself; to expedite payment of pensions through Banks; to increase the transparency and efficiency of the monthly pension payment process."

Superficially, there are some striking but in effect misleading features here. No other government department has launched an ambitious eye-catching work programme. In fact nowhere even among the developed countries a Pension Department expects the pensioners to use the internet to get the information concerning their monthly pensions and the laid down procedures for receiving them regularly.