The DA has submitted questions to probe allegations of nonpayment after it came to light during the recent tabling of the department’s annual report it had incurred penalties for nonpayment of pension fund contributions, said DA MPL Priscilla Isaacs.

“We welcome the acknowledgement from the chief financial officer that a clean-up of the payroll system is needed to rectify the situation, and we will be monitoring this process closely.

“The mere fact that penalties were incurred already confirms that employees’ retirement could have been compromised by the nonpayment of pension fund contributions. This nonpayment violates both labour laws and the moral duty that the department has to secure a comfortable retirement for the dedicated teachers who go the extra mile for our learners.”

‘Distorted statement’

The DA was aware that department faced financial difficulties, but “jeopardising the retirement of teachers is wrong way of balancing the department’s books”, said Isaacs.

The department, however, accused the DA of making a “distorted” statement to mislead the public. Allegations that pension contributions weren’t paid to the Government Employees Pension Fund every month were unfounded, said Education spokesperson Geoffrey van der Merwe.

The department has identified “rare cases” where the pension indicator was not activated from the date of appointment on Persal (the government’s standardised human resource and payroll system).

Isolated cases

“For the past financial (year), we recorded only two of these cases, which is a clear indication that it is isolated cases. This we have been able to remedy upon the exit of the affected employees.”

He said the department is constantly “cleaning up” suspended files where transactions are not processed completely. In the long term, it’s intended to clean-up Persal “on a broader scale to deal with other risks, and this will ultimately allow the department to properly hold employees accountable, where needed”.

He assured employees and educators the department would fulfil its obligations in terms of the pension contributions.

OFM News/Kekeletso Mosebetsi  mc