Super fund boss applauds next year’s allocation

NAMBAWAN Superannuation Fund chairman Sir Nagora Bogan has applauded the government for ensuring adequate funding to meet its statutory employee superannuation obligations in the 2011 National Budget.
He noted that a total of K357 million had been appropriated in the 2011 Budget to meet superannuation contribution responsibilities.
Of this, K220 million would cover next year’s superannuation contributions while K127 million would settle this year’s arrears while another K10 million had been allocated for uniformed officers’ pension.
Sir Nagora said several factors had enabled this positive result which could be attributed to a rare period of the banking and financial institutions’ market stability and the overall favourable macro economic conditions enjoyed by PNG.
“It is further complemented by its prudent regulation that is also reflected within the legislative reforms of the superannuation industry.
“The combination of these factors had given confidence to the government to respond positively to its employees’ superannuation welfare.”
Sir Nagora commended the treasurer, and said the government would work towards breaking the back of its legacy unfunded liability.  
About K2.4 billion was still outstanding as the state’s liability to government employees with respect to the unfunded portion of state’s employer contribution.
In other words, if the entire public servants left employment, this is the amount that the state would have to meet in addition to what the fund would pay out as members’ employee contributions, accumulated interest and a portion of employer share which the fund has started to receive as a result of the reforms.
Private sector employers and Nambawan Super employees  were not affected as the fund still received their full contributions.