Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
Staff at the Civil Service Commission overpaid pensioners by over US$6 million in what is believed to have been a scam to fleece the Government. The money was paid out to widows and ineligible children.
The commission also lost large sums of money to nearly 50 managers who claimed transport allowances despite having been allocated vehicles and fuel.
In her 2012 report tabled before Parliament recently, Comptroller and Auditor-General Ms Mildred Chiri observed that eight widowed pensioners were overpaid by amounts totalling US$357 956 in September 2011, translating to a prejudice of US$4,2 million in a single year to the State.
Pensioners usually receive between US$60 and around US$200 monthly, depending on the grade and duration of service.
The report is now with Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, which will summon the CSC’s accounting officer to explain the matter.
Ms Chiri attributed the overpayment of pensioners to absence of effective internal control procedures.
“The overpayments were occasioned by failure to effectively manage the inputs,” she said.
“There were no reconciliations of the outputs with the original data. The overpayments were only detected after an alarm had been raised by one of the overpaid widows.”
But sources said the scam could involve CSC officials working in cahoots with beneficiaries to prejudice the Government and line their pockets.
The sources said CSC officers could be contacting beneficiaries and telling them that they would credit their accounts over and above what was legally due to them, and then they would share the excess.
Ms Chiri’s report said some children of deceased beneficiaries continued receiving pensions when these payments should have stopped, as per the law, when they turned 18.
“My examination of the records revealed that at the end of the year under review, 5 773 children above permissible ages . . . were beneficiaries,” she said.
“The aggregate excess payments as a result totalled US$152 138 per month.”
This translates to a prejudice of US$1,8 million in that year alone.
The implication of such payments, Ms Chiri said, was that the outstanding balances might be difficult to recover in full since the monthly payments received by pensioners were low.
“Government is losing money on a monthly basis which could be channeled to other critical areas that were being underfunded due to liquidity challenges,” she said.
“It is recommended that more regular monitoring of the pension payroll system be done to ensure that all errors are corrected before the final payment is made.”
Another irregularity Ms Chiri unearthed was that the CSC, formerly the Public Service Commission, violated Circular Number 5 of 2011 directing all Government departments not to pay transport allowances to officers with official vehicles.
“It came to my attention that 49 managers based at head office, provincial offices and district offices who had been allocated official vehicles were in receipt of transport allowances,” she said.
“The total transport allowances paid during the year under review amounted to US$31 752. I was concerned that the Commission, as a regulatory authority was not enforcing its own regulations.
“As a regulatory body, the PSC was in violation of it’s own regulations. The PSC should take the lead in enforcing compliance with conditions of service regulation. It is further recommended that arrangements should be put in place to recover all the resultant unauthorised transport allowances.”
It was observed that US$67 574 generated from the Civil Service Bus operation was not paid to Treasury.
Ms Chiri said that the Civil Service Bus Fund’s existence had not yet been formally constituted through promulgation of an enabling constitution in terms of Section 18 of the Public Finance Management Act.
“Since the Civil Service Bus Fund had not yet been legally constituted, the retention of the above amount without Treasury approval was considered unathorised,” she said.
“I was concerned at the lack of progress.”