EPF Office: Beneficiaries subjected to a lot of inconvenience
I spent three days at the Labour Department trying to hand over the EPF benefits claim and in the interest of thousands of others who would be filing their claims, I thought of relating the inconvenience that one goes through.
View of the 9th floor of the EPF office.
I took the claim form and went to the Labour Department ground floor counter along with a statement of fund availability collected from the Central Bank (CB), with accurate details in it, i.e. correct name, correct employer/employee number and with my NIC number on each statement. On February 14, 2018 at around 9 am after checking the records, the counter clerk said that though the monies have been deposited in my name by the CB, there are some records missing in the Labour Department system. Remember, none of the errors was attributed to either employer or employee!
According to the counter clerk on the ground floor where applications are accepted, though the funds are available in my name, no money would be released till these “errors” are corrected no matter what difficulties the innocent retiree has to go through – in my case at 60 years of age.
I was asked to go to the 9th floor (central filing section) to do a “RN check”. At this point, there was a huge crowd of people waiting patiently. On top of that a security person was trying to control the people while there was no clear explanation on the process and directing them to relevant officers.
Affluent people breaking queues
The number I got was 49 and by 12 noon only number 22 had entered the internal lines in front of different tables. It was very disturbing to see how some were trying to break the queue and these “ill-mannered” persons included well-dressed men and women with an air of affluence. After waiting patiently for my turn, I finally entered the room around 3.10 pm but there were still about 8-9 people around one clerk. Only two officers had been assigned to handle the work on rotation basis while a large crowd waited. You need more than two officers to deal with public complaints on the 9th floor.
Since I was the person (involved in HR) who handled the EPF registrations with the department in all the companies I have worked in respect of the claims, I was confident there were no errors on my part or by my employers.
I have in the past handed over the A, B, H forms to the EPF department for due registration, and each time after 3-4 months I used to collect the registered B cards after visiting the department.
What had apparently happened was that the officers in the department have randomly entered those documents in their registers allocated for each employer which was not the proper way.
Due to these inefficiencies, innocent retirees are compelled to run from one department to another or go back to their former employers, to start the process from the beginning by re-doing the A-B-H forms to correct the department’s faults.
As far as the employer and employee concerned, the documentation I produced had been done accurately and I had the registered B cards with me from all my past employment. I explained to the counter clerk the fault was with the EPF department. This was when I was able to speak to the officer around 3.40 pm and when he asked me what my issue was. I requested him to give a solution for what the ground floor officer had asked for in the internal document. My issue was about amalgamation error in one of five EPF numbers and another issue involving two other numbers.
I saw the tension on the face of the officer with overwhelming demands and unresolved issues of the people. He too was helpless. He asked me to come on another day that he will look into it. I also must give due credit to the officer who did the work from morning till 2 pm working at a stretch who and going out to lunch only at 2 pm.
Knowing how the department works I met another officer known to me and asked for help in the matter before going home.
Pregnant women forced to wait
Two days later my contact said the said documents were untraceable. Luckily I had captured copies of all my documents on my phone and on February 16 went to the department at sharp 8.30 am. My number was 35 but the line moved slower than the previous day. There were over 75 people, some carrying children, some pregnant, some in crutches and some walking with the aid of a helper, etc.
Department officers passing are not bothered or concerned by those standing in the line and checking on their welfare. After all this is public money that we are talking about and staff of the department are paid from funds that come from us. EPF claimants should be treated with respect instead of abuse, harassment and compelled to plead with officials.
At a 4th floor office where I had to go, the section is mostly females and there a group of about 10 employees were either enjoying a cup of Yoghurt for dessert, collecting money for a function, reading papers or chatting while the public patiently waited.
Because my papers couldn’t be found (no fault of mine), I was compelled to go back to the 9th floor and to the original officer whose advice was to get a direction from an officer on the 8th floor.
The 8th floor officer was kind and understanding but had to follow the process and after several more steps, they promised to give me a proper update.
On February 22, I was back in the office, I was informed that some errors had been corrected but was told to get a new set of forms completed by one of my former employers.
At this point I appealed to the earlier kind officer and explained the hassle of walking several floors up and down. She tried to help and asked a 9th floor officer to attend to my matter.
Eventually after a long struggle of three days, I was able to handover my claim form but yet to see whether all my monies would be returned to me safely as expected of them.
At the Labour Department there are notice boards informing of a monthly religious programme inviting employees to take part during valuable office hours running for two hours, adding more unproductive time for these clock watchers. Those who approve this type of nonsense are engaging in a crime!
What if I was living far away out of Colombo and in having an illness, etc? How many people go through this ordeal on a daily basis without being able to voice their issue?
I hope this article will reach the Minister, Commissioner of Labour and his deputies, and action taken to formulate ways and means to simplify the process, if the fault lies in the hands of the department. These government departments are huge white elephants and should be privatised so that all stakeholders get a decent and speedy service. Claimants should be treated with more respect particularly since it’s their money that sustains departments like this.
(This is a first person account of a person who experienced this inconvenience. He can be reached at arunajaya2018@gmail.com)