Gov't defers $1.8-b pension payout

Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter

EMPLOYEES AT two of Jamaica's revenue-collection entities are to receive a $1.8-billion pension payout in the next fiscal year.

The employees from Jamaica Customs and Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) will become pensionable when the Government abolish their posts and reorganise these agencies.

The allocation to make the pension payments have been cut from the 2013-2014 Budget due to what Financial Secretary Devon Rowe said was "later-than-planned adjustments at the TAJ and the Jamaica Customs department".

TAJ is being converted to a semi-autonomous entity while Customs is to become an executive agency.

"This will require the abolition of existing posts and the creation of new posts. Persons whose posts are abolished are entitled to pension payments," Rowe told a Gordon House committee last week.

The financial secretary explained that because of the reorganisation of the department, there will be new posts created, "which means that the persons on the previous establishment will have to be made pensionable. Their status is going to change from a central government employee to an executive agency-type employee. As a result, there is a new arrangement going forward in terms of their pension arrangement".

Rowe explained that persons within the entities can chose to move to the new pension arrangements, at which point the old pension would become due for payment to them. He said the $1.8 million represents a lump sum payment and a monthly payment associated with the reorganisation of both entities.

Wayne Jones, the deputy financial secretary who has responsibility for public-sector reform, told The Sunday Gleaner that only persons who have served a minimum of 10 years, and have had at least one permanent appointment, are eligible to benefit from the payout.

He said if persons are moving and transitioning in and around the Government, including in the new entities that are being created, they will not be paid a pension and a salary.

"We don't carry people on both sides in that regard, but you, however, have to provision because you don't know what will happen," said Jones.