Government unearths thousands of bogus pensioners

The government of the Republic of Congo will, at the end of October, suspend payment to 10,865 pensioners registered under two different pension funds, the government information agency, Agence congolaise d'informations, announced on Thursday. The affected pensioners failed to provide adequate documentation during a census in June of retired civil servants in June. The census was aimed at unearthing pensioners who had registered under the National Welfare Fund (Caisse nationale de sécurité sociale - CNSS) as well as the Civil Servants Pension Fund (Caisse de retraite des fonctionnaires - CRF). Both funds cater for retired civil servants and retired members of the country's security forces. The minister of labour, employment and welfare, Gilbert Ondongo, announced the results of the census at the beginning of the week. He said the survey found that 32,275 people were on the CNSS list while only 29,781 were registered, meaning that some 5,494 retirees did not present themselves for the census. A total of 29,781 retirees took part of the census but only 27,234 provided the required documentation. The remaining 2,547 failed to do so. "Today, we can say that only 27,234 persons are entitled to receive a pension from CNSS," Ondongo said. Before the census, the CRF list had 16,086 people but only 14,476 were registered; the remaining 1,610 did not present themselves for the census. Of all the retirees on the CRF list, only 13,314 provided the required documentation while 1,162 former civil servants provided contentious documentation. Some 904 people were unknown at CRF. "Today, only 13,134 people are entitled to receive a pension from CRF," Ondongo said He added: "It is a welcome surprise for us, who want to reorganise the management of these two funds. At the beginning, we did not imagine that we could find so many forgers." These figures showed that some 20 percent of the CNSS retirees and 15 percent of those under CRF were bogus. "Consequently, the two funds will spare money since less than 10,000 persons are entitled to receive a pension," Ondongo said. He said the welfare sector would soon be reformed and new welfare guidelines issued. "Once Parliament adopts the text and the head of state promulgates it, the current systems will be abrogated," he said. "The reforms expected by retired people, citizens and other people would be applied." Trade unions representing civil servants and retirees have not reacted to the government's findings. However, in 2004, the Confédération syndicale congolaise (Congolese Trade Union Confederation - CSC), one of the country's largest trade unions, said some government companies that were privatised had remitted their employees' contributions to CNSS and CRF before their privatisation. The union claimed that the workers' contributions had, instead, been withheld. The firms that were privatised companies owed to CNSS an estimated 150 billion francs CFA (US $276 million) in 2004 Also in 2004, the government paid one billion francs ($1.8 million) quarterly to CNSS and 400 million francs ($737,000) monthly to CRF.