2.12. Social security in
other countries
Chile
Chile has one of the most interesting cases to study in the
area of social security. This was a result of a weakened economy where
mismanagement by the military had created a diversity of problems ranging from
unemployment, high inflation, rampant strikes and corruption. In order to
address these evils, the military government in 1980 took a drastic decision of
rewriting the labor laws which included reforms of the pension and social
security sector.
Under the new law the function of pension and social security
management was divested from government and was instead transferred was to
private pension companies known as pension fund administrative companies.
USA Vs Japan
Worthy mentioned here is what is called the tantalization
agreement with Japan. Under this agreement, workers can transfer from USA to
Japan and vice versa without losing their pension contributions. They can work
part of their time in USA and the other part in Japan. Pensions can then be
saved in one country and be transferred to another country. Any savings that
were made in one country before the worker transferred can then be shifted to a
new account in the new country. All interest earned is not affected. The worker
can also work in one country and retire in another one with his pension being
transferee accordingly. This also shows a major shift from the traditional
system where pensions had to be paid in the country where the worker was
engaged.
Mauritius
In a bid to strengthen the role of Government in the provision
of welfare to her people, the government in 2000/2001 decided that 5% of the
budget should be spent on the provision of welfare to the citizens. The country
has a full Ministry of social security, national solidarity senior citizens
welfare and reform institutions which administers and oversees social security
and pensions. The country three levels of protection arrangements which one
level is the basic non-contributory pension and social aid, the second is
contributory pension scheme and savings and the third is Voluntary Private
schemes.
Social Security in
Uganda
Article 22 of the universal declaration of human rights,
December 12, 1948 states, that every member if society, every human being has a
right to social security. In line with this declaration, the colonial
government in Uganda formed a social security department in the ministry of
labour which was the precursor of present day NSSF. NSSF was formed by Art
No.8, 1985 which made NSSF a corporate body.
The mission statement of NSSF states as to provide social
security benefits as prescribed by law through the efficient and roleive
management of the fund (NSSF, Annual report 2003).
The major activity of the NSSF are collecting members
contributions, keeping members accounts, enforcing compliance, investment of
funds, payment of interest to members accounts and payment of benefits.
Social security in
Rwanda
The Social Security Fund of Rwanda is a public institution
created in 1962 to manage the Social Security regime put in place by the Law of
15/11/1962. It is under the state guarantee and the tutelage is ensured by the
Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.
The vision of social security fund of Rwanda is to «To be
the best Social Security service provider in the region»
The Mission of social security fund of Rwanda is to be
«Efficiently manage members' funds and provide high quality service to
beneficiaries and other stakeholders»
The main activities of SSFR are To evaluate and collect social
security contributions of employers and employees; To pay benefits to
Pensioners, to the invalids and/or to their legitimate benefactors; To invest
excess funds in the most rational ways in order to be assured of their
profitability and contribution to the economic growth of the country; To
mobilize long term saving; To collect the appropriate statistics necessary to
facilitate planning and implementation of the above mentioned missions.
The management of SSFR is headed by the Board of Director and
structured with the following department: Resources&Administration
Department, Finance Department, Pension&Benefits Department, Contributor's
Education & Customer Relations, Legal&Corporate Services Department,
Planning ,Research & StatisticsDepartment, Investments Department, Quality
Assurance &Audit Department, Real Estate Department and Information
Technology Department
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