GOSS Working With National Pensions Fund To Re-establish Pensions Systems

10 November 2010 – (Khartoum) – The Government of Southern Sudan says it is working hard to re-establish the pensions system which collapsed during the war.

The Under-Secretary in the GOSS Ministry of Labor and Public Service, Madam Rebecca Joshua Okwaci attended a training organized by the National Pensions Fund in Khartoum last week.

Speaking to SRS in Khartoum Madam Okwaci said the work of re-establishing the pensions system will continue even after the referendum.

[Rebecca Joshua Okwaci]: “The work will not stop here with the National Pensions Fund. We had asked for a technical support in order to re-establish the system as I said earlier and I am already working on documents an assessment of the senior expert who will go from here so that we can put the system back and the recruitment board has already interviewed the staff that is coming to join us in the directorate of pensions in Juba. So we have the staff in place already who will give them the adequate training. We have to be ready for the challenges that are awaiting us. We also have to be ready to do our own calculations in time to come.”

Madam Okwaci said more one thousand pending pensions’ files from the different states have been cleared and are ready for calculations. She urged those states that have not sent in their files to do so as soon as possible.

In July this year, the GOSS and the National Pensions Fund which is supervised by the federal Ministry of Welfare and Social Security, signed a memorandum of understanding in Khartoum.

According to the MOU, the National Pensions Fund is expected to offer technical support to the GOSS Ministry of Labor and Public Service.