Capitol Hill, Monrovia – Maryland County Electoral District Three Representative, Dr. Isaac Blalu Roland has frowned on what he termed as the refusal of the Government of Liberia to enforce the pension law for retiring civil servants.
Report by Gerald C. Koinyeneh, [email protected]
According to Rep. Roland, the failure to implement the law is leading to over crowdedness of the government’s payroll and depriving qualified and young people of employment.
Rep. Roland’s assertions were contained in a communication he forwarded to the Plenary of the House of Representatives through House Speaker Bhofal Chambers.
In the communication, he craved the indulgence of his colleagues to invite the Director-General of the Civil Service Agency (CSA) and the Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Samuel Tweah to explain why the law is not being enforced.
He also wants the two government officials to state why those who fall within the range of retirement are still maintained and recycled.
The pension law of Liberia mandates that civil servants should either be retired for health reasons, tenure (after 25 years of service) and age (65years and above).
It outlined that if a civil servant has not reached the retirement age of 65 or served for at least 25 years but has poor health with a medical certificate, said person is eligible to retire with benefits.
According to Rep. Roland, this not happening and is contributing to youth unemployment on Liberia.
Rep. Roland: “This seems not be the case, as the three reasons for retirement are not fully abided by; thus, creating the overcrowdedness of the government’s payroll-giving way to corruption, on one side, and depriving our young and fresh graduates of college and university the opportunity to work, on the other side.”
“Mr. Speaker, retirement gives way to having a new breed of young and fresh-brain Liberians to be incorporated into the workforce, affording them the opportunity to serve their country for productivity, efficacy and adequacy.”
As the nation’s experience steady population growth-both in ‘number and knowledge,’ he noted that it was prudent that retirement laws on the book be upheld and reinforced to afford scores of young people and professionals the chance to come on board to make their contributions to accelerate Liberia’s economic growth and national development.
Additionally, in an interview with reporters at the Capitol Building following Thursday’s session, Rep. Roland also alleged that few of the civil servants that have been retired are rehired on a contractual basis to the same position for a lengthy period, thus receiving pension benefits and salaries simultaneously. He averred that the practice does not only undermine productivity but also denies the young, qualified and professional people job opportunity and the government’s pro-poor agenda.
He said, “when you have people who are 72 years and are still serving, and there are people who are much younger and have the requisite qualifications that supposed to be serving the country right now and are not serving, I think it is something we have to against it.”
“If you want to fulfill the pro-poor agenda, you need to take into consideration all of the available laws that will incorporate people who are qualified and willing to serve.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Roland’s communication was endorsed by plenary and forwarded to the Committee on Ways, Means and Finance.