Dear Claudienne,

I have been waiting for a pension refund from the Accountant General’s Department (AGD) for over one year now. In February 2021, I resigned from the Post & Telecommunications Department. In that same month I submitted my application for a refund of my pension contribution.

In December 2022, I received two letters from the Ministry of Finance and Public Service authorising the AGD to make payment to me in full. Please see reference numbers for both letters below:

I got the Public Service Pension Scheme payment in July 2023. After a few weeks and non-payment of the Civil Service Family Benefits pension or any communication in this regard, I again called and spoke to a male officer at the AGD, who said that I should have received the second pension payment as my banking details are the same. He checked with the Payables team and then informed me that Payables said that they only received one letter to make payment. He then told Payables that he saw two payment letters for me on the system. He also informed me that my file had been sent to the Registry Unit. He told me that he would request and examine my file to see what went wrong. He asked me to call him back in a week.

It is very hard to get through to the department but when I was able to speak to him several weeks later he told me that he had not yet received my file. He again asked me to call back. Each time I called him it was the same story. He told me that he ended up reporting the matter to the supervisor of the Registry Unit and I was relieved as I thought that there would be a quick resolution to my problem. But it wasn’t and when I called back he also told me that he had escalated the situation to his supervisor, but nothing happened. When he made the request for my file it wasn’t even a two-months old file , so I cannot fathom how it is that my file cannot be located.

On February 19, 2024 I called the AGD to speak with the accountant general. I spoke with her executive assistant, who instructed me to email my complaint to Agoffice@treasury.gov.jm which I did on February 29, 2024.

At the time of writing this email (October 30, 2024) I still have not received a payment confirmation about the Civil Service Family Benefits pension refund neither is the money in my account.

Please look into this matter for me.

LG

Dear LG,

Tell Claudienne contacted the Accountant General Department about your concerns and you have informed the column that the Civil Service Family Benefits pension refund was credited to your account on Tuesday, November 5, 2024.

We wish you all the best.

Have a problem with a store, utility, a company? Telephone 876-936-9436 or Cell/Whatsap # 876-484-1349 or write to: Tell Claudienne c/o Sunday Finance, Jamaica Observer, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5; or e-mail: edwardsc@jamaicaobserver.com. Please include a contact phone number.