Gov’t verifies claimants for payment of former employees of defunct EAC, 45 years later

Government has kicked off the verification process of former employees of the defunct East African Community before they are paid their due benefits, including pension.

By the time the EAC collapsed in 1977, employees were on a contributory pension scheme under Crown Agents in London which after the collapse of the filed for bankruptcy and indicated inability to meet the obligation of compensating the former employees.

On Wednesday, while meeting officials from the Ministry of East African Affairs, Members of Parliament on the committee of East African affairs expressed concern over delay by government to compensate the former workers.

“There is a very delicate matter to do with the delayed payment of our former employees of the defunct East African Community. It is 45 years when our gallants Ugandans who served wholeheartedly in that community that eventually collapsed were not paid their terminal benefits,” said  Noel Kisembo, the chairperson of the parliamentary  committee on EAC Affairs.

She asked that government fast tracks the speedy compensation of the former employees or else all of them will die without getting what due for them.

“These people served the country and community diligently. They ought to be paid their money. Our sister partner states who were in the community then  settled the claims of the former employees of defunct EAC bit here it is still outstanding. It is causing a lot of discomfort because the situation is dire. Some have aged, others have passed on and still claim.”

MP Kisembo asked the Ministry of East African Affairs and their counterparts from Finance to take the matter with the seriousness it deserves.

However, speaking in response, the Ministry of East African Affairs under-secretary, James Collins Dombo said verification of the claimants has kicked off already.

“The ministry got money totaling to shs9.2 billion that we received for payment of these members of the defunct EAC. This has been a long story because we had to harmonise records to make sure the right people are paid the right amounts of money. The process going on now is verification to make sure the right people are paid,”Dombo said.

He explained the slow process of compensation that he said involved several meetings , including requiring the all claimants have tax identification numbers(TINs) through which they are to be paid by government , noting that  they had to engage URA and Ministry of Finance to see how to deal with it.

The under-secretary said the hardest bit was determining the genuine claimants as some of them had already been paid.

“Some of them had been paid but claiming what had already been paid. We had to go to the record to find out what each person received . We had to engage Bank of Uganda to retrieve the old records and this meeting was concluded last week. The process of verification is now going on and once we pay out this amount of shs9.2 billion, we shall be able to know if we need other funds or need more.”

According to the Ministry of East African Affairs, Edith Mwanje, payment of pension is done in a manner that if you are to be paid for 15 years and get paid for 10 years, every year you have to declare that you are alive.

“There is a certificate you fill in to show you are alive. If you died before completing the 15 years, for example you are paid for 10 years , your beneficiaries come and request for money for the remaining five years,”Ms Mwanje said.

She explained that payment of the claimants started in 2000 when the inter-ministerial committee put in place all the names of people who were working in the defunct community.

The Permanent Secretary said the condition for payment was that it was for only employees who had worked for the defunct EAC for all the 10 years of its existence (1967 to 1977).

“The people who had qualified were given pension. We have about 450 people who up to now get their pension every month but there are those who didn’t cover the 10 years but had other benefits to be paid. The consolidation of gratuity and money they used to move from where they were posted before the collapse of the EAC will be paid but different amounts of money.”

Revived East African Community

The State Minister for Foreign Affairs, John Mulimba who represented the Minister for East African Affairs, Rebecca Kadaga said the integration of the East African Community presents enormous benefits.

He noted that by engaging MPs, the ministry seeks to ensure they take the message of integration to the electorates.

“This interface provides a platform to identify opportunities that EAC presents to the respective constituents and how we can communicate and disseminate regional matters, share experiences, prospects and challenges,”Mulimba said.

He underscored the role of national assemblies in East African Community.

The minister urged MPs to prioritise issues of integration, like trends in pillars of integration like customs union, common market, monetary union, and political federation.

“The EAC integration is part of the ongoing efforts to foster African economic growth and reduced poverty through strengthening inter-regional trade. It aims at boosting East African trade, creating GDP growth, and creating of jobs through freedom of goods, persons, labour and capital.”

He said commendable progress has been made at all stages of integrations but urged MPs to support the integration .