Zimbabwe’s Public Service Commission (PSC) on Thursday requested all government pensioners to have their biometric data captured by the Registrar General’s Office to ensure they can continue to receive their pension payments.
All pensioners without biometric data should therefore visit their nearest Registrar General’s Office to have their data captured. The pensioners have until August 31 to complete the process.
The Public Service Commission requests all pensioners who have metal identity cards and do not have valid passports to visit the nearest Registrar General’s office and obtain a plastic identity card so that their biometric data is captured.
“We expect this exercise to be completed by 31 August 2021. From 1 October 2021, only those with verified biometric data will be paid their pension,” the PSC said in a statement.
The PSC said this move came after it observed that the biometric attributes of some of the pensioners do not appear in the Registrar General’s database.
The move also meant to strengthen the pensions management system by avoiding payment to ghost pensioners, enhancing the pension system’s security to curb corruption and enhancing service delivery, the PSC said.
The PSC said the provision of plastic identity cards to the pensioners will be done free of charge.
Last December, the Zimbabwean government struck off 10,000 suspected ghost workers from its payroll after a biometric registration exercise funded by the World Bank. Enditem
