Old Age pension scheme looted

MASERU-THE government could be losing as much as M200 million every year through an intricate scam at the Old Age Pension office in the Ministry of Finance.

At this rate, the money siphoned out of the government through the scam over the past five years could run into billions.
So serious is the fraud and corruption that it involves officers who capture data at the offices, paying officers and their bosses.
The chiefs are involved by validating the names of people who are either dead, too young to receive the pension or don’t exist.
Politicians are also in on the sleaze by adding unqualifying beneficiaries to the list to garner votes.

In an exclusive interview this week, Finance Minister Thabo Sophonea described it as the “biggest scandal and rot this country has ever seen”.
Sophonea says his efforts to clean the mess have been met with resistance from officers, chiefs and politicians who are now accusing him of removing legitimate pensioners from the list.
He says some officers have told him he is fighting a losing battle because he will be fired and leave them in their jobs.

“They say I found them here and I will leave them here when I go,” the minister says.
But he says the audit will continue and those caught with their hands in the cookie jar will be prosecuted.
Although the Old Age pension has always been dogged by corruption, the magnitude of the rot is only coming out now.
Over the past few months, an audit of the system has revealed that there are a staggering 16 775 ghost pensioners who receive the M850 pay-out every month.

If all received the pension for a year the government would have lost M171 million or M14 million per month.
Sophonea says the audit has so far discovered 6 289 ghost pensioners on the payroll.
The other 10 486 beneficiaries have either not reached the pension age (70) or are long dead.
He however believes the number will increase as the audit continues and more spot checks are conducted at the payment centres.

“These numbers are from the payment centres that have been checked. We will find more ghost pensions as the audit continues.”
There are several methods used to cheat the system.
The first involves those who capture data at the pension office who are stuffing the system with fake names and conniving with the payment officers to pocket the money.

The Minister says the computer system has been so corrupted that it’s no longer fit for purpose.
“They can add fake names this month, collect the money and then remove them next month,” Sophonea said, adding even the bosses at the office seem to be involved in the scheme.
In what the minister calls “a free for all looting scheme”, some government employees have been fraudulently added to the list of beneficiaries.
“So, they are getting double payments. We are being robbed by our employees.”

He is now looking for funds to hire computer experts to investigate the system.
The second method involves paying officers who leave dead beneficiaries on the list for months or even years while they keep the money for themselves.

The minister says some of the beneficiaries have been dead for the past six years but the paying officers continue to claim to be paying them.
He says some of the payment officers have been fired, suspended or jailed but those remaining on the job have continued looting.
What frustrates the minister is that the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO) has ignored his appeals to conduct lifestyle audits on the officers at the pension office.

“They are just payment officers but they drive big cars and have double-storey houses yet the DCEO is not auditing their lifestyle. It is clear they are stealing.”
The third scheme, in which chiefs play a major role, has several angles.
Some chiefs validate the names of people they know are too young to receive the pension. They then get a share of the pension every month.
Other chiefs will connive with relatives of dead beneficiaries to keep them on the list.

Using a letter with a chief’s stamp, the relatives would continue to collect the pension for years. There are also cases where chiefs and paying officers work together to keep dead beneficiaries on the list so they share the money.
Politicians are involved in the fourth method in which they get unqualified people registered as beneficiaries in exchange for votes.
Sophonea says this is why his attempts to clean the system has triggered an aggressive push-back from politicians.

“When we make a mistake of including one legitimate beneficiary on the list of hundreds of ghost pensioners removed from the list, they make so much noise on the radio.”
“They focus on that one person instead of the hundreds of ghost pensioners that would have been caught and removed from the list.”
The minister says it has been difficult to catch some of the dubious beneficiaries red-handed because they seem to be warned when the net is about to close in.

“When the police get there, the suspects don’t come forward to collect the money.
It means they have been warned.”
He suspects even senior officers at the pension office are involved.
“It’s like I am working with the very same people who created the mess to clean up the mess”.
This, he adds, is why arrests have been rare.

“The truth is that we are in trouble. They are bleeding this country. They say this is government money and they deserve it.”
About 83 000 Basotho over the age of 70 years receive the pension.
Launched in 2004, the Old Age Pension scheme was lauded as a way to pull old people out of poverty.

The scheme which costs the government nearly M70 million annually had also helped many orphans who live with their grandparents.
Experts say it has largely achieved its main goal.
But corruption and fraud are now threatening its sustainability.

Nkheli Liphoto