Mon, 02 Oct 2017 11:55:02 +0000
By NATION REPORTER
THE management of Benefits Consulting Services Limited (Bencon) is in a state of panic and is desperately trying to persuade the Trustees of Saturnia Regna Pension Trust Fund to sue the Daily Nation over the paper’s continued exposure of poor governance and suspected frauds by managers and administrators of Zambia’s largest private
pension fund.
Bencon Chief Executive Officer Bryson Hamanzuka who acts as Secretary of the Saturnia Board of Trustees is routinely writing to the Trustees scaring them with potential legal actions by third parties while suggesting that they should sue the paper.
Hamanzuka first wrote to the chairperson of the Saturnia Board of Trustees on 21 August 2017 expressing concern about the publication of reports highlighting irregularities and damning Pension and Insurance Authority findings in the April 2016 Inspection Report in stories which were attributed to the Trustees.
“It is my considered view that as a Board we must issue an immediate disclaimer of what is being written in the name of the Trustees. Furthermore as Board Secretary, I recommend the engagement of the Fund lawyers to consider all the practical options available to the Board to set the record straight on the various articles that have been published by this tabloid in the name of the Trustees,” the letter said.
In his second letter dated 20 September 2016, Hamanzuka openly suggests to the Trustees that they should consider suing the Daily Nation after the paper published expression of worries by some Trustees over the way KPMG is conducting the audit review of the Saturnia Pension Fund that was ordered by the Minister of Finance Felix Mutati in June, 2017.
“As Board Secretary, I am guiding the Board that with minimum delay we take decisive action against the tabloid including demanding for an immediate retraction failure to which we sue the said tabloid or/and proceed to place prominent or visible adverts in mainstream tabloids disowning the stories being attributed to the Trustees,” Hamanzuka wrote.
KPMG are currently facing a furor of attacks and possible black listing in South Africa following their retraction of part of an audit report which caused the firing of former South African Finance Minister Pravin Ghordan and dismissal of many senior officers from the South Africa Revenue Authority.
Following this revelation of unethical practices by KPMG South Africa, KPMG International revised their code ordering that the subject of a report must be given chance to comment and surprisingly, KPMG Zambia have not given the report to the Trustees of the Saturnia Regna Pension Trust Fund.
In a related development, the chairperson of the Board of Trustees published adverts in the media disowning the stories and threatening to sue the Daily Nation.
This development confirms the reports that have reached the Daily Nation stating that some of the Trustees have been compromised and are frustrating the efforts of their colleagues to protect the interest of the pension fund members or ordinary contributors whom they are supposed to represent.
Some of the Trustees may have influenced investment decisions in which their sponsoring employers have received massive financial support.
According to the Satunria Regna Pension Fund Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December, 2016, one of the sponsoring companies which has received loans and deposits above the limits allowed by the PIA Regulations Act in a named local bank.
The bank had two loans totalling K82.3million as at 31 December 2016. The first was a K34.6million Kwacha loan payable at the 182 Treasury Bills rate plus a margin of 3% and should have matured in August 2018. The second was another Kwacha loan of K46.7million payable at the 182 Treasury Bills rate plus a margin of 2.4%.
Saturnia Regna Pension Fund also had a term deposit of K43,049,339.00 at the named bank plus a Corporate Bond of K71.722million.
Bencon who are the Saturnia Regna Pension Fund managers and African Life Financial Services (Aflife) who are the fund administrators have been at loggerheads with the Board of Trustees, of Saturnia Regna Pension Fund, which has been calling for better governance for a long time.
In their bid to resist the proposed improved governance measures, Aflife and Bencon which are both owned by Hakainde Hichilema, Munakupya Hantuba and Valentine Chitalu through their company Menel Management Services in partnership with Botswana Insurance Fund Managers sued the Trustees twice late last year but judgment was passed against them by the court which also validated the tenure of office of the current Trustees.
The irony of Bencon’s stance is that it is now asking the Trustees to come to its rescue and stop the publication of the irregular and unauthorized activities of the fund manager and administrator.
Industry observers have expressed shock at the attitude of the Trustees who appear to be scared of Bencon and Aflife who are just contracted service providers. The observers are also surprised that the sponsoring companies have kept completely quiet about the Saturnia scandal.
“The Trustees owe the members a fiduciary responsibility and must exercise their authority on behalf of the members. They cannot be ordered by the CEO of Bencon whose tenure of office as Board Secretary is very questionable. He can’t wear two caps at the same time,” the sources who preferred anonymity said.
They also condemned the rebuttal by chairperson of the Board of Trustees for Saturnia Regna Pension Trust Fund Mr. Review Namanje. They said that merely denying that the stories are not true is not enough.
“All denials must be accompanied by facts. Let them produce documents to the contrary,” they said.
The audit review of the governance of Saturnia Regna Pension Fund which was publicly announced by the minister of finance has been done under a veil of secrecy. The Board of Trustees has never been availed the terms of reference which were just read to them by KPMG.
The industry observers are wondering why an exercise on which so much tax payers will be spent is being done in the dark. They said that all the 34,000 members who contribute to the Fund are waiting for the government to tell them what it is doing to protect their benefits.
