The pension management system for officials and civil servants managed by the Social Insurance Institute – State Employees’ General Retirement Fund (Institut de prévoyance sociale – Caisse générale de retraite des agents de l’Etat – IPS-CGRAE) experienced serious difficulties for a long time, leading to a cumulative deficit of more than francs CFA 288 billion as at 31 December 2012. This was largely due to the non-payment or partial payment of contributions by affiliated government agencies over a number of years.

Acts of corruption were perceived in various ways by individuals. It was difficult to make it clear to staff that a particular act constituted corruption and as such was forbidden by law. Corruption was perceived by many solely as taking money from a user for a service that was due to him or her by law. Acts of corruption were not recorded in any form with a view to controlling it, regardless of their impact on results or on the organization's resources or public image.

Internal staff training courses organized by the National Social Insurance Fund (Caisse nationale de prévoyance sociale – CNPS) were centralized in Yaoundé, with some deployment at the level of the four regional headquarters. This compelled staff from external services to travel long distances and stay away from their duty stations and homes for several days or even weeks to attend these training courses. This model generated enormous costs for the organization in terms of travel, accommodation and subsistence.

It is a given that any activity in an organisation is exposed to certain risks that may negatively impact day-to-say operations, results being achieved, value being created or even seriously damage the organisation’s image. Since fraud is one of the main risks identified, the consequences of which can be extremely detrimental, it has been the subject of an in-depth study resulting in preventive and warning measures grouped under an anti-fraud system.

The three thousand staff who use the National Social Insurance Fund (Caisse nationale de prévoyance sociale – CNPS) IT system (business, office and infrastructure applications) had to resort to telephoning headquarters IT staff or emailing them whenever they experienced a technical difficulty. They were forced to wait until someone was available to take the call and, if possible, explain at length what to do to resolve the problem remotely. This meant that the process of handling requests, follow-up, and the recording of reliable statistics was unreliable.

The Collective Scheme for Retirement Allowances (Régime collectif d’allocation de retraite – RCAR) has introduced a fully computerized and versatile multi-scheme, multiproduct organizational and technological management platform, consisting of a multi-channel Customer Relations Centre (agencies, a call centre, web/mobile, social networks), a multiproduct Payment Centre, and a computerized Back Office that is integrated with RCAR’s partners.

Before August 2015 more than 3 million pensioners of the Mexican Social Security Institute (Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social – IMSS) had to visit its offices at least twice a year to confirm their survival to continue receiving pension payments.

The National Social Security and insurance Trust (NASSIT) was established through Parliamentary Act No. 5 of 2001 and charged with the responsibility of administering the Sierra Leone Pension Scheme. The scheme started operations in January 2002 as a mandatory contributory defined benefit Pension Plan. As at December 2010, NASSIT had 161,000 active Members (Contributors) and operates a payroll of over 12,000 Pensioners. By end of December 2014, membership of the Scheme grew to 165,000 and the number of Pensioners grew to 14,500.

Financial institutions in Africa have successfully plugged into the mobile ecosystem and deployed services that have revolutionized service delivery, transforming customer engagement touch points and feedback mechanisms as well as enhancing responsiveness of the financial institutions. In addition to this mobile tech has enabled financial penetration. Currently Kenya has 68 per cent financial penetration through mobile tech and is at 80 per cent in use. While many Social Security services providers use mobile technology, they are still to fully leverage on its capabilities.

Records Management is a critical part of social security administration. The inherent risks in poor records management are not only limited to incorrect payments but often expose the scheme to fraud, loss of data/information, compromised data integrity, poor fund management leading to non-realization of return on investment, litigation, etc.