Opposition Democratic Party (DP) President General Norbert Mao has attacked the Ministry of Public Service, branding it the most ‘incompetent’ in the country.
According to Mao, ministry officials ask for bribes from many retired Ugandans in order to process their pension money.
“There is corruption where officials ask for bribes from retired Ugandans in order to process their pension money,” Mao said adding: “the Public Services ministry actually has the worst services.”
Mao also said the ministry should also speedily focus on the issue of pension reforms, with a view of revamping the sector.
“We need to have a lively debate concerning the livelihood of the people who have worked and retired, apart from calling for legal reforms, I also think the pension sector needs to been shaken up,” Mao said.
He asserted that the Democratic Party ideas can save the young population from the ordeal that the elderly are suffering from through legal reforms and zero tolerance to corruption.
However, when contacted the ministry refuted the corruption and incompetence claims, saying that pension reforms are already underway through the new decentralized system of payment.
“All our services are free and no money is solicited from anyone; our officers are trained and they know this is punishable,” Ms Adah Muwanga, the acting Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Service, said and urged anyone with contrasting information to forward it to the authorities.
On the issue of pension reforms and delayed payments, Mrs Muwanga says the ministry adopted a decentralized system of payments which allows the ministry to handle smaller numbers of pensioners efficiently through monitoring of individual pensioners by a designated pension officer.
“We decentralized the pension payments because there was a problem with the records. I think we are making progress right now since the number of pensioners the ministry is working on fell from 63000 to 160 people per officer,” she said.
She however says the system is not yet perfect as some people have not yet been paid.
“They will get their payments; the system will enable the ministry regulate payment procedures,” Ms Muwanga asserted.
