Even more remarkable is that new complaints were processed swiftly in keeping with the tribunal's mandate which requires disputes to be resolved in an expeditious manner.
Writing in the 2013/2014 Annual Report of the OPFA which was launched at their offices in Pretoria, Pension Funds Adjudicator Muvhango Lukhaimane, said the 2013/2014 financial year will be considered a great milestone for the OPFA.
"It is in this period that the historical backlog was not only cleared, but new matters were dealt with in a time period more in line with what the mandate requires when referring to 'expeditious'. "At the same time, the quality of our correspondence, interaction with stakeholders and determinations was greatly improved."
Lukhaimane said the 2013/2014 financial year also marked the first full reporting period for the OPFA where all new complaints were captured and processed on a new complaints management system.
The organisational structure of the OPFA was also revised to ensure that work and people processes were integrated and dependencies exploited to achieve greater efficiency. During the year, 5,405 new complaints were received, representing an increase of 4.7% on the previous period. A total of 3,651 determinations were issued, representing a decrease of 13.2% from the prior period.
Through conciliation, 115 complaints were settled, reflecting the tribunal's improved investigative process that resulted in sufficient information being gathered at the earliest possible time to narrow the issues in dispute.
Lukhaimane said the Private Security Sector Provident Fund (PSSPF) continued to attract the most significant number of complaints although somewhat reduced from the prior period. Meetings had been held with both the fund's legal representatives and the administrator, Absa Consultants and Actuaries, in order to facilitate the complaints' resolution process. Correspondence was also forwarded to the PSSPF Board of Management and in certain instances copied to the Registrar of Pension Funds to ensure follow-up.
With regards to the nature of benefits being complained of, Lukhaimane said complaints about withdrawal benefits and death benefits represented almost 70% of all complaints finalised. "Of concern regarding complaints relating to non-payment of withdrawal benefits or the quantum thereof is the number of instances in respect of employers not timeously remitting contributions and contribution schedules.
"Also fund administrators are either involved in rebuild processes that take excessively longer than expected or have long periods where contributions have gone unallocated. Of further concern is the number of industry sector funds, often representing vulnerable workers. Most of the issues would have been identified much earlier had the funds been fulfilling one of their basic tasks of providing benefit statements on an annual basis to fund members," she said.
Some of the important determinations quoted in the report relate to the penalty charges levied from retirement annuity members when they seek to either stop contributions or transfer their policy to another retirement annuity. It is hoped that the introduction of treating customers fairly legislation will alleviate this burden by demanding transparency of products and eliminating post-sale barriers especially portability.
