Tue, 16 May 2017 10:25:22 +0000
Millions of dollars of pensioners’ funds stashed in offshore accounts
By NATION REPORTER
A colossal sum of K399,472,260.00 belonging to Saturnia Regna Pension Trust Fund has been stashed in offshore accounts by the service providers without the approval of the Minister of Finance and the Board of Trustees of the Fund.
The unauthorized investments were arbitrarily made by the pension fund managers African Life Financial Services and Benefits Consulting Services Limited which are owned by Munakupya Hantuba, Hakainde Hichilema and Valentine Chitalu through their holding company Menel Management Limited.
The questionable investments have been revealed following the discharge of an injunction which Mr. Hantuba had obtained to restrain the Saturnia Regna Pension Trust Fund Trustees from conducting their duties but lost on grounds of making false declarations before the court.
According to the Pension and Insurance Authority inspection conducted into the Fund between 11th and 19th April 2016, the K399,472,260.00 was invested in BIFM World Equity Fund and Blackrock Global Income Fund both of which are incorporated in Luxembourg. Both entities are open funds which invest in global equities and global equity linked securities.
Industry sources are wondering why the PIA has not reported the matter to the Ministers of Finance and Labour and Social Services.
“The inspection report covers the period 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2016 and action should have been taken to protect the benefits of the 29,000 Zambians who are the real owners of the money,” the sources said.
According to information contained in documents obtained by the Daily Nation, the Trustees were informed about the anomaly by the administrators that “the matter was receiving active attention by the Authority (PIA) and would be remedied via the approval of the action by the minister.”
The PIA report states that “the Fund does not have Ministerial approval to invest in offshore investments and has not complied with the law.”
Sources told the Daily nation that they wondered why the minister should be made to rubber stamp a wrong doing such a colossal sum of money stating there isn’t such a provision in the Act.
Pension schemes are under Statutory Instrument Number 141 of 2011 allowed to invest in offshore accounts but with the approval of the Minister of Finance.
Section 11 (1) of the SI states “a pension may invest not more than thirty per cent of its Funds outside the Republic as may be authorized by the Minister under the Act.”
The inspection also discovered that the service providers had cheated the Board of Trustees and invested pension funds in a company in which the directors of Benefits Consulting Services Limited and African Life Financial Services have an interest.
“They informed us that PIA had approved investment of K13,640,000.00 (Kwacha Thirteen Million and Six Hundred and Forty Thousand) in Zambia Home Loans Limited and this was not true,” one Board of Trustees member said.
Zambia Home Loans is owned by Investrust Bank PLC (51%), African Life Financial Services (20%), Sofala Capital PTY Ltd (25%) and Saturnia Regna Pension Trust Fund (4%).
“This kind of conflict of interest is not allowed under the Pension Scheme Regulation Act of 1966,” the sources said.
Efforts to get the Minister of Finance to comment on the failed but the sources suggested that a full scale forensic audit must be conducted into the Saturnia Regna Pension Trust Fund because there were too many inconsistencies revealed in the PIA report.
Other anomalies discovered during the inspection were unsigned Board of Trustees Minutes, three Trustee positions held by one participating employer, non-adherence to the Trust Deed, long serving Trustee, Contributions receivable, too many rental debtors, and fund properties not in the name of the fund. More information was expected to be revealed to the Zambian people about the responses of the Trustees to the PIA report as soon as available.
