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Biometric Update | An audit carried out by the Ministry of Finance of Cameroon has unveiled a massive pension fraud by some former staff of the country’s defence and security forces over a period of ten years involving irregularly issued birth certificates.
The audit findings made public recently through a ministry statement indicate that a total of 12,846 fake birth certificates were presented by these pensioners to illegally claim child allowances – a payment made by the government to public servants monthly based on the number of biological children they have.
Per the audit, 4,300 retired army and police personnel collected allowances estimated at over CFA three billion (over US$5 million) between 2010 and 2021 because they had presented cooked up birth certificates of children they don’t have.
The government says the birth certificates were adjudged as fake by officials in civil status registration centers where the documents were said to have been issued.
In addition to the fake birth certificates, the audit also found that some of the retirees continued to earn child allowances for children above the age limit provided for by the law. Per the regulations in force in the country, the age at which the payment of child allowance for children of army personnel ends is 16 years, while it is 20 for children of workers of the police.
The Finance ministry said the meteoric increase in the amount of the said financial allowance paid to the above-mentioned number of retirees during the period under review has led to “a growing deterioration in sustainability of the pension system,” and has vowed that the audit will be a regular feature aimed at cleansing the government payroll and pensions management system.
As a precautionary measure to stop the scam, the government said it has put a halt to the payment of this allowance to all retirees whose names were flagged by the audit, for further investigation. In the course of the investigation so far, payment has restarted for at least 52 of the beneficiaries whose situation is said to have been regularized with documented proof. The handling of litigations related to the situation run till the end of October, the ministry indicated.
Observers in the country say this audit revelation further highlights the pressing need for the country to digitize its birth registration system, and also take steps to link it up with its legal identity architecture.
The country is in the process of digitizing its birth registration system but the progress is not seen by citizens as fast-paced. The government says the digitization will make the issuance of civil status documents like birth certificates very easy to obtain, but difficult to forge.