The New Nation - Internet Edition

A REPORT on "Corruption in Delivery of Public Pension" was presented at the Jatiya Press Club by the Transparency International Bangladesh the other day. TIB conducted a study on the prevailing practices on payment of pension and has identified the bureaucratic channels through which public servants have to obtain the Pension Payment Order (PPO). It is noted that civil servants who remain on job for about 30 years or more are to submit about eleven documents before the Pension Payment Order is issued by the appropriate authorities. They have to show all papers relating to their salary and benefits including medical allowances, dearness allowances, travel allowances and other fiscal benefits. They have also to submit documents on payment of service charges in residential areas, where they lived for different periods and also documents on gas, electric and water-supply bills of residences where they lived.

The law and rules relating to pension are backdated and make pension seekers to go to different places for obtaining clearances. The TIB report has identified some offices which insist upon payment of bribe averaging Taka eight thousand.

It has been suggested that the existing policy and practices on pension should be reviewed for transparency. Harassment of pension seekers and underhand deals have to be removed. One reason way public servants face hassle in getting their pension orders issued after retirement appears to be a general lack of awareness about the papers that they have to preserve during service life to show a clean record on settlement of dues. But the offices that they work for should also give them clearance certificates when they get transferred elsewhere. Public servants have to be encouraged to maintain their own records on salary and benefits including medical allowances, maternity allowances for women employees on a regular basis. The fixation of pension at the time of retirement of public servants should be made easy and transparent.