Govt in drive to restore confidence in pensions
GOVERNMENT is working towards coming up with ways of protecting life savings in future and instil confidence in the country’s pensions industry, an official has said.
Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC) acting commissioner Blessing Kazengura said IPEC was working on a compensation framework for individuals and companies that lost their savings during the conversion of values from the Zimbabwe dollar to United States dollars in 2009. He was speaking at a seminar on findings of the Commission of Inquiry into the conversion of insurance and pension values from the Zimdollar to US dollar by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Budget, Finance and Economic development in Mutare last week.
Comm Kazengura said the continued rise in public mistrust of insurance and assurance companies had jolted the insurance regulatory board to take corrective measures and put forward measures to protect pensioners’ savings.
“We need to share ideas on how best we can proceed with implementation of post-inquiry reforms for the benefit of pensioners and policyholders who lost their life savings, as well as the development of the sector.
“I am aware that as people’s representatives, parliamentarians have been inundated with complaints from constituencies about the loss of values of their savings, particularly pensions,” he said.
Comm Kazengura said there is need for a holistic solution that is informed by past mistakes that resulted in losses.
“It is for that reason that we convened this meeting so that we can walk the journey together as we share ideas on how best to chat the way forward on this complex matter,” he said.
Chairperson of the portfolio committee on budget, finance and economic development Felix Mhona acknowledged the loses accrued by pensioners.
“It is a fact that many contributors and beneficiaries were left impoverished, with little or no benefits at all depending with the types of schemes they were a part of. While the insurance and pension companies flourished and there resulted in an outcry by citizens who felt prejudiced, hence the constitution of commission of inquiry to investigate the matter,” he said.
Mr Mhona said it is therefore imperative that they consider the findings of the commission and bring to finality the matters of contention raised by the petitioners as a matter of urgency.
He added that there was need to strengthen insurance and pension supervision through the introduction of Insurance and Pension Bill to be tabled in the Parliament soon.