Tue, 22 Aug 2017 13:14:53 +0000
By Nation Reporter
EFFORTS by the Saturnia Regna Pension Fund Trustees to hold their half-year fund performance review have been thwarted and frustrated by the Pension and Insurance Authority (PIA).
According to sources, the PIA objected to the meeting on grounds that the audit that was ordered by the Minister of Finance, Felix Mutati, would be ready in a few days after which the long-awaited Annual General Meeting (AGM) to elect new Trustees would be held.
But sources who feel that the PIA is complicit and compromised wondered to how the current Board of Trustees would be reporting during the AGM if they were not allowed to hold routine meetings to prepare for the same.
“Why the secrecy? What is being hidden by failing to accord us terms of reference of the audit and now being barred from routine scrutiny of the records?” the sources asked.
The PIA has issued a directive that all meetings of the Saturnia Regna Pension Fund Board of Trustees must be cleared by the Registrar and the Trustees feel very strongly that the situation is frustrating their efforts to monitor the performance of the Fund Manager and Fund administrator.
“We the Trustees are the owners of the money and it is unfair that we must seek permission to review the performance of our own fund,” the sources complained.
The Board of Trustees for Saturnia Regna Pension Fund have been locked in battles with the Fund Manager Benefits Consulting Services Limited and the Fund Administrator African Life Financial Services over the governance of the Fund.
The two service providers are commonly owned by Menel Management Services whose shareholders are Munakupya Hantuba, Hakainde Hichilema and Valentine Chitalu and they are partnered by Botswana Insurance Fund Managers.
The Trustees feel that the common ownership of Bencon and Aflife has led to serious conflict of interest and want to appoint a new Fund Manager. But Bencon and Aflife have resisted resulting in litigation. Injunctions by Aflife and Mr. Hantuba were thrown out by the Lusaka High Court and the tenure of office of the Trustees was validated by the two judgements.
However, Bencon and Aflife seem to have the full backing of the PIA which for a long time has failed to implement its own directives issued to rectify irregular and unusual practices by the managers and administrators.
Meanwhile, members of the Board of Trustees of the Saturnia Regna Pension Fund have complained of intimidation by the Fund Manager Benefits Consulting Services Limited who believe that they own the pension scheme as the PIA Licence lists them as the sponsors of the Fund.
