State responsible for its workers’ super

THE State acknowledging its debt of millions of kina to the public sector super fund, Nambawan Super, is a welcome start of a process of redress for retired public servants and the families of those who have died.
But for State lawyers to argue in court that the superannuation fund did not have the standing to bring the matter of outstanding employer contributions to the court smacks of arrogance.
After all other attempts to get the State to settle its outstanding debts, the superannuation fund sought to take the last option left – the courts.
What else could it have done? Wait some more while capital and interest accrue further?
In what was an expected outcome, Justice Les Gavara-Nanu ruled in Nambawan Super’s favour and ordered the State to pay K110 million it owes to the fund.
State lawyers had argued in court that Nambawan Super did not have the standing to bring the matter to court, that money was budgeted for the payments to be made later and that part payments had been made.
On the question of standing, the judge told the court that Nambawan Super was a licensed trustee and had rights to get orders to compel payments from the State since the State did not deny that it owed the money to Nambawan Super.
On the question of money being budgeted for payments to be made later – however soon and convenient to the State – that would not be in the best interest of the super-fund members who are awaiting to be paid or family members of those who have already died while waiting.
Justice Gavara-Nanu found that the State stopped reimbursing its debts to Nambawan Super in Jan 2016.
Since then, between 200 and 300 former public servants have not been paid the State’s component of their final entitlements – money that the State, as their employer, was obliged by law to contribute to their super fund.
The sad fact is that some among those retirees have died.
Those payments should normally be made regularly without fail, however, given its bad run of money problems, the Government has had to make certain priorities and apparently paying Nambawan Super reimbursements was not among those priorities.
As a result, the amounts have been accruing and so has interest.
The penalty interest the State would have to pay is certainly going to rise and the longer the delay, the more that will increase.
The fund itself, as a profit-making entity, needs all the money and resources it is legally entitled to at its disposal to make investment decisions on behalf of its members. Debts in the millions of kina are not good for such an entity.
The fund had, in the past, used its own funds to settle the exit payments to some of its members but then it had come to a point where it could not continue doing so.
As the employer of those retiring workers, it is the State’s responsibility to settle payments owed to the super fund on their behalf. To withhold such payments would be legally and morally wrong.
Such a situation should not be allowed to continue in future.
This is not the way to treat people who had loyally served the State and the people of Papua New Guinea for the best part of their years.
To ensure they retire in peace and enjoy the rest of their lives doing what they want to do at their own leisure is the least we can do for them in return.
Certainly that is not too much to ask of the State.