Ex-Admarc staff court RBM on pensions

Former employees of Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) have asked the the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) to intervene on the pension funds saga involving Admarc and Old Mutual Pension Services.

The call is a fresh twist in the matter which has been in and out of court since October 2023 when it emerged that at least 3 200 former Admarc workers were unable to access their pension benefits, a year after being laid off.

In a complaint dated April 18 2024, the ex-Admarc staff, through their task force chairperson Mabvuto Chiumia, expressed frustration over failure by their former employer to remit pension funds.

They said they are facing challenges to access the money from Old Mutual Pension Services and that Admarc conceded that it was not remitting pension deductions for some months.

Reads the letter in part: “First, the issue was that our former employer did not remit the funds to Old Mutual Pension Services. Attached is the letter which our former employer admitted not having remitted the funds.

“Second, we are being advised that we should choose either to withdraw part of our funds or to be receiving our funds monthly. However, we are aware that Section 109 [1] of the Act provides for winding up of the fund.”

In a brief telephone response yesterday, Admarc spokesperson Agnes Ndovie said the corporation paid all outstanding remittances to Old Mutual.

She said: “I understand this case is in court, therefore, Admarc cannot comment much. But as far as pension is concerned, we paid all outstanding remittances to Old Mutual.”

RBM spokesperson Mark Lungu said he was yet to get feedback from his colleagues who are handling the Admarc matter.

He said: “Remember today is a holiday; people may not be close to their files.”

But Admarc, in a written response to a labour complaint signed by the company’s human resources manager Charles Nchembe and addressed to the Blantyre District Labour Office, said it was not up to date in its remittances.

The response dated July 18 2023 said government was unable to provide the funds in time due to financial constraints, but indicated that Treasury provided the company with some funds in bits, leaving a balance of K300 million.

Old Mutual lawyer Davis Njobvu in a WhatsApp response yesterday said he did not have information on how much funds Admarc is yet to remit to his client and the number of ex-employees that the company has paid thus far.

The Pension Act compels employers to remit the pension contributions “no later than 14 days after the end of the month in which the deduction should have been made”.

 Njobvu said his client has already paid pensions to about 2 800 of the 4 000 plus ex-Admarc employees and spent about K4 billion on the payments.