By MOFFAT CHAZINGWA –

GOVERNMENT is seeking to amend the Local Authorities Superannuation Fund (LASF) Act so that part of the fund can be channeled towards emoluments for council retirees, Local Government and Housing Minister Stephen Kampyongo has said.
Mr Kampyongo said Government is greatly concerned about the challenge of arrears for retirees in the council and was working to find a way to address the problem.
Mr Kampyongo who was commenting on the problem of arrears to council retirees in Zambia said this had been a challenge for some time, but Government was committed to resolving the problem.
He said in an interview in Kitwe yesterday that Government was not idle over the problem of arrears to council retirees.
“What we are doing is that we are negotiating with the Ministry of Finance to try and see if we can amend the Local Authority Superannuation Fund Act, which will allow the ministry to apply some of the funds to go to emoluments of council retirees,” Mr Kampyongo said.
He said his ministry was looking at devising a system, which would involve deducting money for council retirees straight from the source, which was the Ministry of Finance so that they could start dismantling the arrears.
Mr Kampyongo who said Government was sympathetic with the council retirees assured of his ministry’s commitment to come up with an effective mechanism of dismantling the arrears to the ex-council workers.
“We sympathise with the retirees because once one retires, they need to start their lives again and the only way one can start a meaningful life is by receiving their dues in time,” he said.
He said as a way of demonstrating Government’s commitment towards addressing the problem of arrears to council former workers, he would soon be appointing a board to start heading LASF, which was responsible for galvanising the resources for members belonging to local authorities.
Meanwhile, Mr Kampyongo expressed satisfaction with the strides being made by the Taskforce on Illegal Allocation and Acquisition chaired by Home Affairs Deputy Minister Panji Kaunda, to restore sanity in land management.
“Every Zambian deserves to be served equitably. We can’t have a situation where a clique of greedy individuals are the ones who should benefit from the services that are supposed to be given to the majority of the people,” he said.