State to address payments: Ngangan

 THE Government is likely to meet with Nambawan Super Limited to see how it can address the amount owed to the superfund, according to Finance Secretary Dr Ken Ngangan.

In December last year, Treasury Secretary Dairi Vele had told The National that the Government owed the superfund a huge backlog of superannuation funds it deducted from public servants’ salaries.

The figure, according to a well-placed source, could balloon to as high as K2.5 billion [US$825 million] by the end of this year.

The source had told The National that the current unfunded State liability was K2.1 billion [US$693 million] and “this will now balloon out to something like K2.5 billion over 2016.”

Ngangan said: “It’s a legacy issue, no proper process put in place and that has accumulated over a long period of time, 15- 20 years.

“(We) plan to meet with Nambawan Super Ltd and Treasury and at least agree on how we can go about this.

“Some appropriation has been allocated to the Nambawan Super Ltd; the Government is in the process to address the issue because  Government employs more than 100,000 public servants, most of whom are contributors.”

The source said the Government had budgeted K18 million to be paid to the superfund.