Govt Warns Civil Servants Near Retirement to Register Early as New Digital Pension System Rolls Out

Public Service Principal Secretary Jane Imbunya has advised civil servants who are approaching retirement to promptly engage their payroll officers to avoid delays in accessing their pension benefits.

Speaking during an interview on Radio Citizen on Monday, February 9, Imbunya revealed that the government has introduced a structured notification process in which eligible employees will receive reminder letters urging them to formally register for retirement through their respective payroll offices.

Upon registration, retirees will be issued with a unique code that enables them to enroll in the government’s Pension Tracking Module, a digital system launched last year to simplify and speed up pension processing.

According to the PS, the platform allows pension benefits accrued from different government roles or departments to be tracked and consolidated in one place, significantly improving efficiency.

She noted that the system has already helped reduce delays in pension payments across multiple government departments.

“Regardless of where one works, anyone nearing retirement must register to receive the code that allows us to capture them in the system and ensure a smooth transition after exit from service,” Imbunya stated.

In addition, Imbunya disclosed that the government is currently conducting a nationwide payroll audit aimed at removing individuals who are no longer in active service but are still receiving salaries.

The audit targets retired staff as well as deceased employees whose details remained on the payroll during the transition from manual records to digital systems.

She explained that recent payroll reforms are part of a broader effort to clean up salary data, noting that the government remains the country’s largest employer.

“There have been major reforms, and they are ongoing. The digital payroll system is eliminating inconsistencies and ensuring accuracy in salary payments,” she said.

Imbunya added that the exercise is meant to ensure that each employee receives only one salary, addressing issues that arose under the manual payroll system where outdated records were not properly removed.

The government is also rolling out additional technology-driven measures to further eliminate ghost workers across public institutions as part of continued payroll and pension reforms.