The Public Service Commission (PSC) noted on Thursday that there is a need for policy interventions to mitigate pension challenges, adding that a transparent process must be put in place to track where the main problems are regarding pension queries or complaints.

The PSC briefed the media on its Quarterly Bulletin ‘The Pulse of the Public Service for the period 01 January 2023 to 31 March 2023’, where it said it had been inundated with various complaints relating to pensions from political parties, trade unions and members of the public, including the challenges experienced by ex-government employees in accessing pension benefits.

It said there was a need for government to ensure that pension systems were integrated so that people were not faced with challenges.

“According to the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), although retirement funding is thriving in South Africa, with an estimated amount of R2-billion in unclaimed funds as at March 2022, inefficient administration continues to be the root cause of many complaints, particularly delays in the payment of withdrawal benefits. Pension beneficiaries who are located in remote areas where bank details are incorrect, take too long to respond,” said the Commission.

The PSC explained that the majority of delays were because employers had not paid over contributions to the funds, although it was the responsibility of the fund to ensure that contributions were paid.

“In some instances, members have tax issues and the South African Revenue Services (Sars) will then withhold the benefits. This is beyond the control of the GEPF. The most [common] delay is that the employer often submits insufficient and incomplete documentation,” it said.

The PSC announced that in 2023, the Government Pension Administration Agency (GPAA) received 2 637 resignations and discharges from the Public Service due to misconduct.

The Commission noted that the issue of unconsolidated pension funds of former Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, and Ciskei employees, known as TBVC employees, need strategic interventions to force government to find a way of integrating and updating information because former employees and their children are suffering “because at that point in time they were in the space of homelands which they did not choose to be part of”.

The PSC is of the view that existing processes executed by departments must be changed.

“There are policy gaps on the abuse of the system by government officials who resign and cash their pensions – in the last 10 years GPAA had 2 404 instances of members who exited the fund and joined the public service the very next day. These employees take new higher positions within the same organisation on the same date they resign from the public service. This is definitely an abuse of the system, if not fraudulent or unethical conduct,” said the Commission.

The PSC said that there was a need for pension redress to deal with policy blockages and policy gaps.

SERVICE DELIVERY INSPECTIONS

The PSC noted that effective and efficient service delivery by public institutions remained a contentious issue with many citizens still grappling with access to government services, in particular those delivered by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA).

A key challenge that has placed the spotlight on service delivery by the DHA is long queues and backlogs of services at its offices, which prompted the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs to call the DHA to a briefing to outline the strategies to resolve the problem.

The PSC conducted unannounced inspections at 57 selected DHA sites across the country in 2021.

The broad objective of these inspections was to ascertain the extent to which the DHA’s services are accessible and modernised to ensure that backlogs and long queues are eradicated.

Following the completion of the inspections, the PSC held several engagements with the leadership of the DHA, including Home Affairs Mininster Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, to discuss the PSC findings and the approach to the implementation of the recommendations.

Some of the key findings during the inspections were the lack of accessibility of DHA’s facilities in a number of provinces leading citizens to travel long distances to access services while intermittent connectivity of its information and communication technology network negatively affected the issuance of smart IDs and passports, PSC said.