Superfund calls on State to pay

Nambawan Super Limited (NSL) welcomes the Jan 12 decision of the National Court on outstanding contributions owed by the National Government to long-serving public servants who have retired since Dec 2015.
In a statement released yesterday, the superfund’s chairman Anthony Smare said: “We urgently request that the State meets the obligations as set by the courts.
“It should be recognised that even though Nambawan Super has had the judgment in its favour, unfortunately members will have to continue to wait until proceeds are received from the State.
“However, Nambawan Super will work to ensure that the State complies with the National Court’s decision. It is disappointing that the State has clearly not met its obligations to pay the unfunded components of exiting employees upon the members exit, thus compelling Nambawan Super to take such court actions to protect the interests of the affected members.
“Nambawan Super will seek enforcement of the National Court’s decision to ensure speedy settlement of the outstanding contributions, and will continue to fight to obtain the affected members’ entitlements.”
Smare said 204 members have been waiting since Dec 2015 with many passing away or suffering hardship including evictions from their accommodation whilst awaiting this finalised payment.
“The numbers of members impacted continues to grow each day as more long-serving public servants retire and it has now grown to impact 4908 members who are entitled to more than K211 million plus interest earnings,” he said.
“Nambawan Super asks that the State immediately complies with its legal and moral obligations by making arrangements to make the payments so the public servants who have served the country for many years can enjoy their retirement with dignity.
“Nambawan Super has previously advised the State that we are willing to consider accepting assets, government bonds or alternative arrangements to address these outstanding contributions, with the emphasis on an expedited settlement.
“Any payments from the State received pursuant to the National Court’s decision will be distributed by Nambawan Super to affected members with priority to those members waiting the longest with accrued interest less any taxes.
“In the meantime, affected members are encouraged to keep their contact details up-to-date with Nambawan Super including phone numbers and bank details so that if payments are received from the State members can be contacted and payments quickly made.
“It should be recognised that Nambawan Super has no right to use other members’ money to meet the State obligations to pay the members that have left, and Nambawan Super Ltd has no obligation to pay a member money in excess of what has been actually accrued in the fund.
“It is on this basis that we commenced the action against the State.”