$50M released to pay pensions
Stabroek News
May 21, 2003
The Ministry of Finance has made available $50M for the payment of monthly pensions which were delayed due to insufficient funds.
Payments of pension recommenced last week.
According to a press release from the Government Information Agency (GINA), the Guyana Post Office Corporation had withheld pension payments until further notice following a number of errors in the system.
The release added that Minister of Human Services, Bibi Shadick had recommended that the Ministry of Finance advance $50M to the Post Office to pay pensioners, while the issue of the unavailability of funds was being sorted out.
GINA stated that the minister had charged that the post offices were guilty of errors and omissions in their accounting procedures which resulted in delays in the recoupment of cash for advances for pension payments.
She pointed out, according to GINA, some of the shortcomings which included the lack of official post office stamps on vouchers, the stamps not being legible and coupon totals differing from the amount on the vouchers.
Improvement in these areas, GINA said, would ensure that proper checks were made of vouchers to reduce fraudulent transactions.
After the uncovering of the Old Age Pension fraud last year, the Human Services Ministry and the Ministry of Finance instituted security features for coupons.
