Audit team uncovers 22 dead police pensioners still getting K117,800

A police pension audit team has found that 22 pensioners who have died were still being paid out a total of K117,814.56 which their relatives were using and not saying.
The audit team from the headquarters in Konedobu, Port Moresby, has found that the family members using the account included the children.
The accounts were for people from Central.
The discoveries were made from this year’s monthly payments list by the audit team.
Audit team leader Badick Bassai said those sons and daughters who were withdrawing the pensions did it “knowingly and did not report to the officer in charge for the payments to be cancelled but continued to excess the bank accounts for their own gain”.
Bassai said: “We were surprised when we saw either a son or a daughter still holding on to the deceased pensioner’s bank card despite the fact that they have our office and mobile numbers but failed to report it.
“This clearly indicated also that relatives were untrusted and what they did was illegal and amounted to stealing, which is an offence.”
The relatives were caught off-guard when they were not present at the designated district police stations for the audit.
He also confirmed that there was a good response from pensioners in all districts of Central who turned up at their respective police stations to get their records updated, while very old pensioners unable to walk were visited at their respective villages in parts of Mekeo, Aroma and Abau.
Assisting the pension audit team, First Constable Juth Wamiang, said the Police Department would be making a savings of K117,814.56 a year when removing the deceased from the monthly payments list.
This will be a massive savings for the department to improve the operation of the department as a whole, Wamiang said.
Wamiang said 70 pensioners were registered on the list this year and now that 22 were confirmed dead, only 48 remained for Central.
The police pension scheme was established by the Government in recognition of policemen and women who joined the force before 1972 and their spouses’ benefitted from it when one died.
When both died, the account was to be closed and that meant relatives should immediately surrender the bank card or report the matter to appropriate authorities.
A nationwide audit will be conducted in December and will be in the three regions of Mamose, Southern and New Guinea Islands as well the Highlands region in areas considered safe for auditing.
The day and where the visits s will take place will be published in the two daily newspapers on the third week of October and a notice will be sent to all provincial administration officers.