Health Worker Paid Retirement Dues
A retired nurse can finally enjoy her retirement following the payment of her dues thanks to the intervention of the Ombudsman in a case of inordinate delay.
Ms. Mary Kemunto complained to the Commission against the Pensions Department for delaying the processing of her pensions. According to her, she was an employee of the Ministry of Health working as a Senior Enrolled Nurse at the Ibeno Health Centre, Kisii County, where she worked until her retirement on 1st July 2020. Upon retirement, her dues were duly computed by the Ministry and forwarded to the Pensions Department for processing and subsequent payment. However, two years later, her pension had not been paid forcing her to seek the intervention of the Commission.
The Commission by way of inquiry took up the matter with the Director Pensions. In their letter to the Commission, the Pensions Department admitted that indeed the pension payment claim was processed by the ministry and submitted to the department, the preliminary verification revealed gaps in the documentation necessitating the claim to be referred back to the Ministry of Health.
Following the update from the Pensions Department and to have the matter resolved, the Commission initiated an inquiry with the Principal Secretary, Ministry of Health. In their response, the ministry informed the Commission that the claim had an amendment which was corrected and the file returned to the Treasury and that the claim was successfully extracted by the Pensions Department for further processing.
The Commission further took up the matter with the Pensions Department in light of the new development. The department in a letter to the Commission confirmed to have finalised the processing of the pension and was awaiting exchequer disbursement to release the funds.
“The department finalised processing of Ms. Mary Kemunto’s pension gratuity and the resultant monthly pension arrears. This payment will be remitted to her bank account once exchequer funding is availed. In the meantime, she was introduced to the payroll to commence receipt of her monthly pension,” read a letter from the department.
Ms. Kemunto in a communication to the Commission on 7th July 2023 confirmed receipt of her pension dues and thanked the Commission for the intervention.