The attention of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has been drawn to a story on page 7 of Vanguard Newspaper of February 7, 2022 with the caption “Retirees on PTAD payroll hits 250,000”. We want to state categorically that the information given in the first paragraph of the report is a misrepresentation of facts.


While we appreciate the support of the media especially Vanguard Newspaper in projecting the Directorate’s achievements and successes recorded in good light, the Directorate will always give accurate information on its operations to avoid misrepresentation and ambiguities in figures that can create confusion in the management of the Defined Benefit Scheme.


One of the primary mandates of PTAD is to create a comprehensive credible database of all pensioners and Next of Kin of deceased pensioners under the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS).


From the database, pensioners who are eligible for monthly pensions are quality assured, computed, audited and placed on the payroll. These categories of pensioners are from the Civil Service, Police, Parastatals, Customs, Immigration and Prisons.


There is also another category of pensioners on the PTAD database. These are pensioners who are not entitled to monthly pension but are entitled to one-off lump sum pension payment. They are ex-workers from defunct/privatized agencies like Savannah Sugar, NAHCO, ALSCON etc.


For the record, as at January 2022 pension payment, a total of 229,326 Pensioners from the Civil Service, Police, Parastatals, Customs, Immigration and Prisons pensions are on PTAD monthly payroll. However, the total number of pensioners on PTAD database is over 250,000.


The Vanguard report substituted the database figure with the payroll figure which is not accurate.


PTAD regrets any inconvenience the error has caused our stakeholders.

Signed
Management