By Petronella Sibeene WINDHOEK Even if thousands of pensioners who flocked to registration points have complained of long queues, the office tasked with this duty is adamant that no pensioner will remain unregistered at the end of the exercise. Since three weeks ago, elderly people across the country have been registering so that they receive their monthly benefit of N$350. United Africa Paymasters Managing Director Gerry Munyama in an interview with New Era assured that his office would make sure all eligible pensioners are registered. With an intention to register 180ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 000 pensioners and with 22 teams dispatched countrywide, Munyama described this exercise as having been challenging. He says the unpredictable mobility of people contributed to “unnecessary” delays at some registering points. He explained that while the team might have planned for a certain number of people and calculated the time to be spent at a particular point, due to mobility the figures would sometimes double, resulting in the team being delayed for another station. Not so different from the queues experienced during the time of elections, the registration of pensioners across the country has been no exception. Since the process started, there have been complaints that the elderly are left to stand in long queues and wait for clerks from United Africa Paymasters to show up on time to register them. With due respect, Munyama says, long queues were inevitable. Cognisant of the fact that the elderly can be quite sensitive, he says registration had to be carried out to ensure that these people receive the benefits to which they are entitled. “It is a process that might have caused some inconveniences, but we had to ensure that their benefits reach them,” he said. Apart from the two challenges, the floods in the Caprivi Region did not only displace those living along the Zambezi River, but resulted in designated registration points being moved to somewhere else. “Despite all these challenges, we will ensure that no one is left behind. We do not want anyone to lose out on benefits,” Munyama added. The registration process is mainly being carried out in an attempt to clean up the system of what he termed “ghost payments”. In past years, there were situations where the beneficiary was not able to get to the payment point every month, and the proxies who collected the money did not give it to the rightful beneficiary. Further, there have been cases where the beneficiary had died but relatives did not report this fact and continued to receive the benefits. This task, Munyama says, is there to verify the authenticity of all beneficiaries and, in the process, clean up all ghost payments. The process aims at cleaning up the system and ensuring that government resources are protected and distributed to the genuine pension beneficiaries. The assignment is being conducted as per instructions given to United Africa Group by government. In terms of good governance, Act 10 of 1992 stipulates, the Ministry of Labour and Social welfare together with the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare need to ensure that all pensioners are registered. This process is carried out every three years. The registration process will be concluded tomorrow with teams concentrating on the elderly who are bedridden.