Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) has unveiled plans to engage Old Mutual Pension Services on information about former Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) staff pushing for their unpaid pension funds.
In a letter dated May 24 2024 signed by RBM director of pension and insurance supervision Nayeja Ngosi, the regulator advised ex-Admarc staff that Old Mutual Pension Services Company is obliged to give information to pension fund members, including their entitlements in the fund.
However, she observed that the fund which is expected to pay the ex-Admarc staff cannot be discontinued as requested by the former workers because it caters for other employers and members.
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Nayeja said as per law, only up to 50 percent of the total accumulated pension benefits can be paid as a lumpsum at retirement if the total benefits exceed the thresholds with the remaining 50 percent paid as an annuity or a programmed withdrawal or a combination of the two.
Reads the letter in part: “Kindly be advised that the concerned employees belonged to Old Mutual Unrestricted Pension Fund which oversees a large number of employers and members. In this regard, the fund cannot be discontinued despite a significant number of employees under Admarc that ceased to be employed.
“Granting the request in the circumstances would be tantamount to exempting former employees of Admarc from the requirements of the Pension Act, 2023 which is outside the mandate of the Registrar of Financial Institutions.”
But reacting to the RBM response, ex-Admarc staff task force chairperson Austin Panja, however, accused RBM of “failing” to address their concerns.
He said there were contradictory responses between Admarc management and Old Mutual Pension Services over the issuing of member statements to ex-Admarc staff.
Said Panja: “This means that as former Admarc staff we are blank on how much our former employer is owing Old Mutual. We wonder why RBM is failing to respond to the matter brought to them, and this gives us so many questions without answers.”
A copy of an e-mail response dated June 18 2024 shows Admarc director of corporate services Ethel Zilirakhasu as having written RBM, explaining that Admarc was yet to receive member statements from Old Mutual with the pension administrator promising to send the statements by this week.
The ex-Admarc employees asked RBM to intervene on the pension funds saga involving Admarc and Old Mutual Pension Services.
The matter has been in and out of court since October 2023 when it emerged that at least 3 200 former Admarc workers were unable to access their pension benefits, a year after being laid off.
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