Since the reorganization of the Pension Fund of Morocco (Caisse marocaine des retraites – CMR) in 2011, which placed the client at the forefront of its concerns, the Fund’s “client relationship” has changed considerably, in particular owing to the introduction and use of a marketing and multichannel approach.

In 2016, the CMR witnessed:

Among several other social security benefits, the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) of Zimbabwe pays   a funeral grant of US$300 in terms of the Pension and Other Benefits Scheme. The benefit is paid to provide assistance towards the burial of a member who would have contributed to the scheme for a minimum period of 12 months. The US$300 pay out is insufficient to cover basic funeral services. In an endeavour to accord every retirement pensioner a decent burial, NSSA contracted Econet Life to provide funeral services to NSSA retirement pensioners.

Prior to the introduction of the Collective Scheme for Retirement Allowances (Régime collectif d’allocation de retraite – RCAR) in 1978 and in the absence of a statutory retirement scheme to cover them, several public establishments in Morocco managed their own retirement funds (special schemes, railway workers, mining personnel, water and electricity managers). This however suffered from the following limitations and drawbacks:

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.

The Pension Fund of Morocco (Caisse marocaine des retraites – CMR) is managed by a tripartite Board of Directors. In 2001, a Permanent Committee was put in place to prepare Board sessions and monitor the implementation of decisions and resolutions of the Board. In addition, the Board created two support committees in 2011 to strengthen the governance of the Fund: the Asset Allocation Committee and the Audit Committee.

The Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention No.102 adopted by the International Labour Conference of the ILO on 28 June 1952 establishes worldwide-agreed minimum standards for all nine branches of social security to encourage the widest development of social security schemes. These branches are; medical care, sickness benefit, unemployment benefit, old-age benefit, employment injury benefit, family benefit, maternity benefit, invalidity benefit; and survivors benefits.

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.

Risk mapping is an internal audit tool that allows users to take the necessary measures and establish arrangements to protect the organisation against potentially harmful risks. Based on the observation that not all the risks inherent to the organisation’s activities had been identified, this tool was deployed with a view to managing them, as regards their potential impact on achieving results and the organisation’s assets and image.

A voluntary insurance scheme for independent workers and workers from the informal sector was established in 2014, in line with regulations. In an effort to make this scheme known to all concerned sectors of the population and to facilitate the enrolment of the greatest possible number, the National Social Insurance Fund (Caisse nationale de prévoyance sociale – CNPS) developed a system involving the accreditation of social secretariats.

Employers are required to register as enterprises and to register their staff, then pay the corresponding social security contributions. When the employer does not do this, the employees may do it themselves. What has been found in practice is that many employers either do not register themselves or their staff, as a result of which the latter cannot access the social security benefits provided by the National Social Insurance Fund (Caisse nationale de prévoyance sociale – CNPS).

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.

The rationale of a retirement benefits scheme is to alleviate old age poverty and a contributing factor to poverty is the loss of the principle bread winner. Despite paying survivors benefits, statistics indicate that up to 80 per cent of the said families have to downgrade their living standards and are susceptible to poverty. To address this challenge, the Laptrust scheme introduced additional insurance-based benefits; Group life cover (3 times annual pensionable salary) and last expense (USD 1,000) to complement existing survivor's benefits drawn from the scheme.

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 Insurance Fund (Caisse nationale de prévoyance sociale – CNaPS) of Madagascar has created a think tank devoted to social security. This innovative initiative aims at remedying the inadequacy of academic research on the subject and its inability to influence public policy. The goal is to provide high-quality services to a large number of beneficiaries.

The National Social Insurance Fund (Caisse nationale de prévoyance sociale – CNaPS) is continuing its efforts to extend social security coverage in Madagascar. An initiative to expand awareness raising activities has become a laudable strategy in terms of its achievements. In 2014 it launched a programme for Catholic school leaders that promotes and raises awareness on the provisions of social security and of their responsibilities regarding such rights.

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.

The issue or challenge addressed by our practice: Proclamation No. 715/2003 excluded a majority of private organization employees (definite period employees and management staff) from pension scheme coverage.

It has been recognized that a major challenge in developing countries is how to ensure that the poor are included in health financing arrangements and they can access benefit from health insurance coverage as the non-poor.

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.