Pension benefits dilemma for Rwandans who worked in Burundi lingers on

The Rwandan government is not ready to pay full pension benefits to more than 1800 Rwandans who worked in the public service in Burundi for years before returning home, Members of Parliament (MPs) heard yesterday. The news was delivered by Rwanda’s Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Ambassador Claver Gatete, while appearing before the Standing Committee on Social Affairs. He also told the MPs that instead of sending pension benefits that would include interests accrued on the money contributed by the Rwandan pensioners over the years, the Burundian government sent the Rwandan government only the contributions paid by pensioners. The contributions of the pensioners amounting to Rwf139 million were sent to Rwanda in October 2013 by the government of Burundi with hopes that the Rwandan Government would use the money to pay the former workers’ pension benefits. Now Rwandan officials say that they want to give the contributions back to the pensioners instead of giving them real pension benefits, which means that the money they would receive is very little. Now, the pensioners have declined to receive their contributions and they petitioned Parliament to ask the Rwandan government to pay them benefits as expected when they contributed to the pension scheme in Burundi. Under a Memorandum of Understanding of 1978 between member states of the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries (CEPGL), portability of pension benefits between countries is possible. Member states of the bloc are Burundi, DRC and Rwanda. But at yesterday’s session, Rwandan officials said that Burundi declined to send all the pension benefits to Rwanda, leaving Rwandan officials with no option but to accept the contributions offered instead of losing everything. “You normally don’t get 100 per cent when you negotiate. We know it’s not fair but you have to make a choice when you negotiate,” Gatete said while explaining why the government accepted to receive the pension contributions without interest. The money received was contributed by different Rwandans who worked in Burundi as public servants from 1969 up until 1994 when they returned to Rwanda following the country’s liberation. Minister Gatete and other government officials agree that it’s unfair to give back the former workers their contributions but they also say that the Rwandan government doesn’t have the money to pay the pensioners’ benefits because their contributions were not put to use in Rwanda. The Director General of the Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB), Jonathan Gatera, said that it would cost the Government about Rwf16 billion to avail pension benefits to all the 1800 Rwandans who are former workers in the public service in Burundi. “It’s a lot of money,” he said, explaining that “without interest benefits from a pension fund, the individual contributions from workers are negligable”. Meanwhile, the Spokesperson of Rwandan pensioners who worked in Burundi—Pierre Claver Kayigi, said the government should negotiate more and secure all the required funds to be able to administer pension benefits that the workers need. “We need the Rwandan government to give us pension benefits; not the contributions. Giving us back the contributions was not the objective of the negotiations between the governments of Burundi and Rwanda,” he told The New Times yesterday. Kayigi said that most pensioners would rather not receive their contributions, insisting that the Rwandan government should send the pension package it received back to Burundi so that the pensioners can reclaim their rights from there. “Our government should have negotiated the interest on the pension contributions before accepting the pension package from Burundi,” he said. Some legislators also advised the government to keep negotiating with the Burundians to secure the full pension benefits for the former workers are paid. “Being denied one’s right to pension is a big problem,” said MP Alphonsine Mukarugema, deputy chairperson of the Committee on Social Affairs. The committee on Social Affairs will hear from the pensioners who worked in Burundi before tabling the issue in the plenary session of Parliament for all the legislators to have their say on the way forward. Negotiations for Rwandans who worked in the public service in Burundi to get their pensions in Rwanda started in 1997. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Pension benefits dilemma for Rwandans who worked in Burundi lingers on