By Steven Godfrey Mkweteza, Contributor
Old Mutual Malawi Plc says it is worried with the high levels of rate submission of pension funds amongst the employers, a development which it says, contributes to poor administration of the contributions.
General manager responsible for the pension services for the company, Tawonga Manda, told journalists in Blantyre on Thursday during the an interactive trustees conference on pension funds administration that rate remittance of the contributions was the main challenges facing the company on pension administration.
“Many employers would remit the funds when the employee is retired or dead. This delay the process of calculating the benefits, hence, missing the target of processing them within 14 days per what the law requires,” he said
Manda said his company is currently having a backlog of rate submitted pension funds to be processed, a development which he said, contributes to delayed distribution of funds to the beneficiaries and law suits.
Manda, also mentioned accumulated arrears and penalties for rate contributors as the other major concern to the administration of the funds.
“We still have a long way to go to sensitize the general masses especially the employers on what the law says about administration of pension funds,” said Manda.
The General Manager, therefore, said it was in this view that his company thought of organizing the trustees conference to clarify some of the cumbersome issues on pension funds.
In a separate interview, Deborah Ntaba, the human resources manager for the Reunited insurance company, described the conference as an eye opener and a refresher on challenges facing the companies on processing the pension funds in the country.
Ntaba observed that knowledge gap among the players was the main challenge facing the companies.
“Yes, I agree that sensitization on the pension act is the way to go to address this most especially the people from the rural areas who are not more conversant than those literates in the urban areas.
“These people need to understand that it is long or cumbersome to process the pension funds. Sometimes it takes more than 14 days mostly when an employee is dead,” she said.
Old mutual Malawi Plc is the leading Malawian company listed on the Malawi stock exchange to among others; administer pension funds, general and life insurance and financial market.
