Bunting promises PNP gov't will speed up pension payments to cops

 

Opposition Spokesman on National Security, Senator Peter Bunting, is promising that a People's National Party government will improve on the speed at which retired police officers receive their pensions.

 

Senator Bunting says it is unacceptable that the officers have to wait up to two years to receive the first payments. 

 

He says during his tenure as minister between 2012 and 2016, he intervened in the process which yielded positive results.

 

"When I was minister, we recognised that problem. And I had appointed former Commissioner, Lucius Thomas, to be my sort of facilitator to ensure that retired officers received their pensions in a timely way. He would act as a liaison between the Ministry of National Security and the Ministry of the Public Service, ensuring that the necessary documentation went quickly between the ministries so that retired police officers would not be out of pocket, so to speak, for an extended period. All that seems to have fallen away and we are back to where it was before," he said, promising to address the matter when the PNP returns to government. 

 

Senator Bunting was speaking Tuesday at the annual conference of the Jamaica Police Federation.