PETALING JAYA: The Government had paid RM12mil in monthly pensions to 3,000 dead army veterans between 2011 and 2013.
The Auditor-General’s 2013 report (Series 3) released yesterday revealed that RM11.94mil monthly pensions were overpaid to 3,786 veterans or recipients of retirement benefits.
From that, a total of RM1.69 mil has already been collected.
“Further audit checks revealed that the payments were still being done.
“To ensure the pensions are not overpaid and to avoid the difficulties in collecting the payments, the Veterans Affair Department (JHEV) needs to identify a mechanism to avoid such incidence,” according to the report tabled in Parliament yesterday.
Regulation 22(2) of the Regular Forces (Pension, Gratuities and Other Benefits) Regulations 1982 and the Armed Forces Act 1972 states that pension eligibility and service benefit were given to officers who were in service for a recognised period of not less than 10 years and Regulation 24(2) states that it was given to personnel from other ranks who were in service for not less than 21 years.
Veterans who did not complete the period of service as stated above were eligible to receive all the retirement benefits except pensions.
There were 17 retirement benefits for veterans such as Service Pension; Disability Pension; Derivative Pension; Cash Award in lieu of leave; Gratuity; Fixed Allowance for Mobilisation Officer, Education Allowance as well as the Welfare and Education Aid Scheme.
JHEV, in response, said it will stop such pension payments based on information obtained from the NRD or from the veterans’ next-of-kin who furnish a copy of the death certificate.
The department, however, said it could not cancel the pension payment immediately, citing an example where a veteran died on June 30 last year.
JHEV said the death of the veteran was informed at the last minute by the next of kin, thus the veteran’s pension for the following month was paid.
“The department cannot cancel the pension payment for individuals once the payment has been generated as the payment is done in bulk,” said JHEV.
The department however has taken steps to collect the payments made through several measures, such as issuing a letter of demand to the banks of the recipients.
Audit conducted between July and December last year revealed that JHEV had played its role as the agency in managing the payment of retirement benefits to the veterans. However, the management of retirement payment benefits was not satisfactory due to the poor upkeep of records.
The report stated that JHEV’s failure to monitor and update its records also resulted in a total of 2,058 unclaimed pension payment cases amounting to RM7.78mil, which was credited to the Lapsed Deposit Cancellation Scheme B Lapsed Account as of October last year.
Related Stories:
PAC to haul up 13 ministries over issues raised by A-G
Already a subscriber? Log in
Get 20% OFF The Star Digital Access
Cancel anytime. Ad-free. Unlimited access with perks.
