MORE than 3500 retirees from various Ministries have dragged the Attorney General to Court for nonpayment of their terminal benefits amounting to K 10,000,000.
This is a matter where Bornwell Katita Kamoya and 3523 were claiming the said monies following a consent judgment entered in their favour by the Supreme Court.
They contended that according to the signed consent order between the plaintiff and the Public Service management Division under the Ministry of Justice, tabulation of released funds, they were expected to be paid K 10,000,000 by July 2009.
“To date we have not been paid anything, we were granted a number of claims among them costs arising from the court proceedings, but to no avail, there was a purported payment of K 10,000,000 but that is not a correct position,” they said.
The plaintiffs said they had worked for several years and spent other years in pursuing the matter further in court through hiring various lawyers due to the Ministries reluctance in paying them their dues.
That a team of accountants from the Ministry of Justice, Public Service Management Division, Cabinet office, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Transport Works and Communications was constituted to produce a report on the same.
The plaintiffs indicated that the released report showed that they were paid in July but was refuted and were now claiming the same because there were no records at any Ministry to show proof that they were paid.
They were also asking the Court to grant them any other relief that the court may deem fit as well as interest at the current bank rate.
THE CURRENT GOVERNMENT WILL PROBABLY TRY TO USE THE “WE FOUND THIS PROBLEM” EXCUSE. MEANWHILE THE MP JUST GOT A RAISE AND THEY ARE GETTING THIER MONEY. THE PF HAS ABSOLUTELY NO EMPATHY. THEY ARE ENJOYING THIER PECKS WHILE RETIREES AND STUDENTS STARVE. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. RELEASE THE STUDENTS THAT WERE ARRESTED AND PAY THE RETIREES ALSO OPEN CBU. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
On completion of service isn’t the retiree supposed to be walking away from his/her last place of employment with due benefits or at most get paid within 3 months of retiring! What is happening now is on retirement it takes years for benefits to be received, one is literally reduced to scrounging before they get their dues that is if death does not visit them first. Where really lies the problem, so many lives have been wasted due to insensitivity on how retirees make ends meet before receiving their dues.
Pay retirees, please. It is disheartening to observe the miseries that retirees go through in Zambia. Those in employment get paid monthly and get salary increaments. But retirees are left out to wallow in misery! It’s very unfortunate. I wish retirees can file injunctions to block MPs getting increaments and gratuities before retires are paid their dues. It’s utterly wrong to normalize the abnormal situation.
Forget it guys. You will not get paid. You are low down on the priority list.
Iam one of the affected retiree, who went on voluntary separation in 1999.
Iam appealing to the government of Mr. Chagwa Lungu to pay us our terminal benefits, we’ve suffered enough with our families, whilst himself is enjoying at state house with his ministers.
At least the MMD government was paying us little on monthly basis, not this PF government, it’s the worst government since independence. Come 2016 they have to pack their bags and leave state house.