Smare says State has honoured commitment

Nambawan Super on Friday confirmed the State has fully satisfied the K146 million unfunded State share commitment for retired public servants made in the 2018 Supplementary Budget with a K46 million payment.
Chairman Anthony Smare acknowledged the State had honoured its commitment to its former employees by making this third payment and bringing the total received in January 2019 to K146 million.
Since July 2018, the State has remitted K297 million in payments, settling outstanding amounts it owed to more than 6100 retired public servants.
“I am pleased with this latest payment,” Smare said.
“It demonstrates the State’s commitment and focus to addressing its obligations to those retired public servants, who have given so much of their lives to serving our country.
“The payments received this month will enable benefits to be allocated to former public servants who exited employment, up until Sept 2018.
“We estimate a further K36 million is needed to clear unfunded benefits for more than 600 former civil servants, who will have exited service from Sept 2018 to the end of Jan 2019.
“The 2019 Budget commitment of a further K150 million to be paid this year will see the State catch up to exited members, if they quickly follow with instalments over the coming month, and we will continue to engage dialogue with Deputy Prime Minister Charles Abel and Treasury on this.”
Smare said sustained dialogue between the State and Nambawan Super had been central to the progress made in the past six months to address this long-standing issue.