Is Pensions Dept. suffering from ‘Vestosis’ fit for purpose?

‘Vestosis’ is a dreadful illness with a dismal prognosis for the sufferers and even a worse one for their service recipients. Existence of this malady amongst state sector officials was well known for decades but the inclusion of its diagnosis in the satirical medical nomenclature awaited the advent of my erudite friend and Consultant Psychiatrist, late Dr. D. V. J. Harischandra at the Teaching Hospital (T.H.) Karapitiya in the late 1980s.

What is ‘Vestosis’?

This is a case where those who donned vests of power lost their heads and started behaving in an overtly insane manner. The Director of the hospital of the time was just a not-so-senior medic with no postgraduate qualifications. While misusing the privileges of the job and misappropriating the health vote allocated to the institution, he tried to be super strict with the colleagues, often straying away from the Establishments Code.

A new-born with a major abnormality of the gullet (only a small single digit number of babies with this malady has survived in the whole of written Sri Lankan history up until then) was destined to live because the anaesthetist with the surgeon’s help, broke open the well-equipped and hitherto unopened (for no rhyme or reason) ITU for the baby’s post-operative care. The boot licker Director who was waiting to open the ITU with the usual pomp and pageantry was not amused. He called the anaesthetist for explanation as to why he did what he did when indeed the latter’s action should have been commended and the latter congratulated for the great achievement in making a helpless new-born pull through following historic surgery to put his malady right. The whole hospital rose against the director and walked out demanding an investigation into this action of his which was a gross violation of the Establishments Code. On the list of allegations there were some acts of corruption which could be easily proven too. All the allegations against this ‘Vestosis’ sufferer were proven and as a merciful alternative to dismissal was transferred to provincial hospital Badulla from where he disappeared into oblivion.

What about the Pensions Department?

A senior doctor, we will call him X, who was a Consultant colleague of mine at the Teaching Hospital, Karapitiya has been harassed by the sufferers of ‘Vestosis’ for no fault of his. Dr. X served Sri Lanka for 35 long years in different parts of the country before retiring and taking up a job in England to fund his youngest daughter’s education. As a result, his state pension came to be known as a foreign pension. He obtained life certificates from the Sri Lanka High Commission in London, scanned them and together with a scanned copy of the relevant pages of the passport sent to the Director General Pensions (DG) attached to emails, one every year. The hard copy was sent by snail mail. This was sufficient proof of identity and life for his pension to be credited to his account till 2021 when his pension stopped around September for not submitting the life certificate (LC).

By then he had come back to live in Sri Lanka. At the request of the DG he sent a completed life certificate downloaded from the department of pensions website and a Grama Niladhari (GN) certificate scanned, via email and hard copies via snail mail. His pension was up and running again till August 2022 when the pension stopped for the same reason. One can understand why and empathize with a 75-year-old forgetting to send the LC in time for the pension to roll over to next year. Even though he furnished the Pensions Department with the same documents as in 2021 authorities did not revive his pension asking him to call over in person to hand over the life certificate. As the Covid virus was still doing its rounds and as my friend being 75 years young was in the vulnerable group, he requested that his pension be reactivated with the documents already supplied as happened in 2021 during which year the same documents were abundantly sufficient indeed. Emails have gone to and fro but the pension remains put within the confines of the department. There have been some shoddy emails sent specially by the accountant which my friend has not taken lying down and gone on to educate the wrongdoer about writing proper emails. This might have contributed to the resistance the officials are putting in the way of my friend’s pension getting activated. My friend is contemplating taking legal action, but he is conscious of the prohibitive legal and logistic costs he will have to incur doing so.

Is the Pensions Department Stance justified?

These are some points to ponder before one could answer the question. In the end you will know that they cannot justify their stance even in their wildest and weirdest dreams.

● What should be proven for a foreign pension to continue? 1) identity of the person and 2) proof of life

● Passport copy and a life certificate from the embassy was sufficient for 14 years from 2005-2019 for the pension payment to continue

● Downloaded and filled Life Certificate (LC) and GN certificate requested to be sent by non-other than DG himself were enough for revival in 2021

● Why are the same two documents insufficient in 2022?

● Can the officials ask a 75-year-old man to come personally to hand over LC especially in a milieu of covid virus still being very much at large.

● My friend lives in Colombo. What if he lived in Nuwara Eliya? Would he have had to come down all the way to show his tired, wrinkled but still handsome face to the officials whose favourite past time seems to be sitting on their brains!

● Mind you all this insane behaviour of top government officials is taking place in a world one could do internet or phone banking to move large amounts of money without the bank ever seeing the account holder’s face

What Pensions Department Officials Need to Do to Redeem Their Lost Image

1.Remember all government departments are there to serve the public

2.Remember the power instilled in the vests the Vestosis sufferers don is peoples’ power handed down to them by the government elected by the people.

3.Remember the officials in government departments are servers of the public and not their masters

4.Remember circulars are for the guidance of the employees of the department to help them function well and not to inconvenience its service receivers

5.Remember circulars are not law.

6.Remember the pride of the officials is far less important than convenience of their elderly service receivers

7.Remember unfairly clinging onto an irrational section of an internal circular to harass an elderly customer is not only inhuman but could also be criminal

8.Remember if some sections of the circulars are irrational, trash the circular and go for a better one.

Mr. Minister of Public administration, or better dear Mr. President, over to you for an investigation into harassment of a public service pensioner in unison by the Accountant (Monthly Pensions), Assistant Director Foreign Pensions, and the DG Pensions. I am not a lawyer but will gladly appear before your inquiry panel to look after my friend’s interests. (mind you I am the same person who appeared for the hospital staff before the inquiry panel in T.H. Karapitiya to send the Director home all those long years ago) You might well find material enough to consign these individuals to a life in retirement as a merciful alternative to dismissal like how Director, Teaching Hospital Karapitiya was transferred to Badulla. In the meantime, please instruct the DG Pensions to restore this poor man’s pension too.

Dr. M. M. Janapriya