TLS unhappy with merger of schemes

TLS Constitution and Law Committee chairman Harold Sungusia

What you need to know:

The new law will see a number of social security schemes including PSPF, PPF, GEPF and LAPF forming the Public Service Social Security Fund

Dodoma. The Tanganyika Law Society (TLS) wants immediate amendments to a Bill that seeks to amend Public Service Social Security Fund Act, 2017, citing several shortcomings that deny beneficiaries full benefits from the schemes. This comes after, on November 17 2017, the government tabled in Parliament legislative proposals for the enactment of the Bill into the Law.

The Act stipulates the repeal of PSPF, PPF, GEPF and LAPF Pension Schemes; establishment of the Public Service Social Security Fund (PSSSF); transfer of employees in the public sector from the repealed schemes to the Public Service Social Security Scheme; and, National Social Security Fund (NSSF) remaining particularly for services to the employees in the private sector.

The overall goal is to enhance service delivery in the social security area.

The two, PSSSF and NSSF, will be formed to cater for the public and private sectors, respectively.

Speaking to The Citizen yesterday, TLS Constitution and Law Committee chairman Harold Sungusia faulted the schemes, citing that the arrangement did not consider to benefit unemployed persons.

“Despite the benefits that the scheme intends to offer to the beneficiaries, the Bill does not clarify whether it will also benefit people who have not been employed in the formal sector or not, this is unacceptable, it should benefit all the people,” he said.

He further described the Bill as ‘biased’, citing that it did not set to benefit other groups in society such as young widows, who were not having children yet.

Mr Sungusia further expressed his dissatisfaction over the Bill, citing that once the Bill was enacted into law, it will give Attorney General the mandate to intervene in negotiations related to the scheme.

He added “We also want the scheme not only to benefit the beneficiaries after their retirement, instead it should also offer services even before the beneficiaries retire.”

TLS further called upon the government to ratify the Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) , which is the flagship of all International Labour Organisation (ILO) social security conventions, as it is the only international instrument, based on basic social security principles, that establishes worldwide-agreed minimum standards for all nine branches of social security.

According to Mr Sungusia, Tanzanian government had only ratified seven out of the nine branches of social security which were outlined by ILO.