The Teachers Service Commission said that it and the Treasury are using old and bureaucratic pension law that was enacted in 1952 to process pensions.
The revelations emerged during the grilling of the top management of the teachers’ employer by the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday.
The panel had put the TSC top brass led by Human Resource director Julius Olayo and his legal counterpart Cavin Anyuor on the spot over the delays in payment of retired tutors.
The Murang'a Senator Joseph Nyutu-led committee has demanded answers, saying thousands of retired teachers are languishing in poverty due to delayed payment of pensions.
“Why do we have to wait until the retirement date order for us to start processing their documents for payments?” Nyutu said.
The lawmakers asked the commission to explain why teachers, after serving the country for several years, are subjected to frustrations.
The officers told the committee that in accordance with the TSC policies, the commission is supposed to process pension documents within three months of retirement of a teacher.
The same is forwarded to the National Treasury for payment.
However, this has not been the case due to tedious process for processing teachers’ documents as provided for in Pensions law that was enacted in 1952.
They said that the Act provides for a laborious and tedious process, with each document requiring approval or authentication by relevant authorities.
“It’s the bureaucracy in terms of checklist in the law. It's an old act. Pension Act checklist is very laborious and requires thorough checks," Olayo said.
The TSC HR boss said that the Act provides for provision and verification of several documents and filling of statutory forms.
“The reason is because of the required documents. If it's not done with a tooth comb, then it will go to the Treasury and it will be sent back to us,” he said.
Anyuor told the panel that the law requires teachers to fill statutory forms and attach other documents including their ATM cards.
“The statutory form is old colonial but is still attached in the Act. There is a colonial law that was passed in 1952 that is still being used in processing pensions,” he said.
Currently, at least 2,000 teachers retire every month.
However, payment of their pension has been slow with some tutors forced to wait for as along two years to start getting pensions.
TSC begins processing documents for payments upon the retirement of a teacher.
On Tuesday, the committee asked why the commission waits until a teacher retires before they start processing the pensions and why they have not automated their services to hasten the process.
“Is there a plan to automate your services because the current process is manual and it's hectic. We are in the 21at century. Why can't you automate your systems,” Kirinyaga Senator James Murango said.
“If there is process, then it should be done nine months to retirement and then what remains is clearance certificate from TSC and maybe KRA,” Taita Taveta Senator Johannes Mwaruma said.
The Legal Director told the Committee that the commission has also started the automation of aspects of the pension process to ensure that the tedious manual process is hastened with a view to improve the turnaround time.
Anyuor said that the commission has also established a systematic processing of claims through the first in first out principle and placed its employees involved in pension processing on daily targets to ensure that the claims are processed in time and submitted to the Director of Pensions.
“The commission has established an office manned by Officers from the Pensions Department at the Commission’s Headquarters to expedite the processing of teacher’s pension claims for onward transmission to the National Treasury,” Anyuor said.
TSC was responding to a question by Embu Senator Alex Mudigi who had sought to know the measures the government had put in place to expedite the payment of retirement benefits to the teachers upon their retirement to mirror other institutions.
